But One Truth
by The Exile
Summary: A couple of years after the events of Star Ocean 2, Chisato Madison's life changes forever when she enters a photography competition.
1. Chapter 1

But One Truth  
by The Exile

'Bunny Runs For President.'

Chisato Madison picked up the newspaper. Around twenty supplements fell out with a hollow thud. A small furry black blur shot across the room and buried itself in the pile of pamphlets, raising a small cloud of paper. Chisato smiled and took the newspaper to the table. Apart from being almost too large to fit through the door, the Cross Review was a fairly reliable publication. It covered most of Expel's news, wasn't too biased and had a picture of Dias Flac naked on page 3. It wasn't the Nede Chronicle but it had potential. She read about the bunny, then about the latest in a series of XINE sightings. Allegedly, one of the creatures had attacked a man in Mars Village, The government was warning people to stay away from them.

A little voice mewed in her ear. She looked around and saw a black fuzzy whiskered face staring at her, piercing green eyes unblinking. The tiny kitten had climbed up onto the chair and onto her shoulder. It had something in its mouth. It was a leaflet.

Dungeoneering Photography Competition!

The Cross Review needs pictures of your exciting adventures in major dungeons around Expel, especially the Cave of Tribulations! Send in a photograph of yourself on any floor of the Cave of Tribulations and win 10,000 Fol per floor.

Chisato made a mental calculation. The Cave of Tribulations was thirteen floors high. Assuming she could conquer all thirteen floors, that was 130,000 Fol in her hands. That would put food on the table for a month at least. Since living on Expel, she had found it very difficult to find work. She was too set in her ways – after having worked in one job for so long, she couldn't find another. Celine sent her money from the spoils of her treasure hunting expeditions but she didn't like scrounging off the others. They had all done quite well for themselves - Rena was working in a hospital now and Claude had joined the Cross town guard. Ashton had gone adventuring as well. Precis was quite a famous inventor now. Even Noel had a job – he was working as a lab assistant for Leon, looking after the lab animals. For some reason, Chisato couldn't get accustomed  
to everyday life on an alien planet after all that she had been through during their epic quest.

Placing the kitten carefully down on the floor, she walked over to the glass cabinet on the wall and unlocked it. She took out her best camera, a Ririca 2120, and hung it around her neck. For good measure, she took her reporter's clipboard as well and stuffed it in her backpack; You never knew what newsworthy events would happen on a day out. She packed enough food and water for a few days, her stun gun, her phone to contact Claude in an emergency, then left out some food and water for the kitten, switched off the lights and left the house. 


	2. Chapter 2

The stone skittered off the metal statue. Life-size, around 5'7'', it was of a man in leathers and a bandanna. He carried a backpack, a set of lock-picks in his belt and a wickedly serrated knife in his hand. He was a thief, a member of one of the many bandit tribes that lived in these inhospitable ruins, trying to make a name for themselves. Chisato was already planning the documentary she could write about them: Cave Culture, the Other Side of Expel, Life at the High Levels. As she had predicted, the statue clicked and whirred to life as the stone hit it. Its five companions, arranged in a ring, followed it and they began to shuffle around the circle in a bizarre parody of a ritual dance, their blades flashing in random directions as they sought their attacker. Hidden safely behind a pillar, she took the opportunity to photograph them until, five minutes later, they calmed down. 

Further down the hall, a shopkeeper's stall stood abandoned, a few crates spilling their contents, blueberries and potion bottles, a sword that glowed a pale cyan from some minor enchantment and ten bright emerald frogs who jumped and splashed in a puddle of whatever was in the syrupy pink contents of Resurrection Bottles. Chisato took pictures of the Go Home Frogs. She had hoped to meet 'Santa' - the leader of the Bandits - would be at the stall so she could interview him and maybe buy something, but this was almost as good. Go Home Frogs dwelled only in the deepest regions of dungeons and were very difficult to catch as they could not only hop by teleport short distances. They were widely sought after by dungeoneers as, if captured, they could be trained as homing frogs and could even teleport others out of the dungeons with them. Little was known about their life in their natural environment. Noel would love a nature documentary...

Suddenly she heard a loud meow. Her backpack began wriggling and a small black furry head poked its way out. Before Chisato could grab it, her kitten had jumped out of the bag and was chasing the frogs across the room.

"Lola!" she called. How in the name of Tria had it sneaked out of the house in her backpack? It really was a reporter's cat, she though. The next thing she knew, it would be taking pictures of her in the shower.

She made another grab for it but it darted behind a statue, scattering frogs everywhere. With one hand, she fished behind the statue. A claw raked the back of her hand, drawing three drops of blood. She pulled her hand back. With a meow of protest, the kitten began to scramble up the face of the statue. It was halfway up before it was flung off again when a figure wrapped in rags dropped from the ceiling onto the statue. Hissing, the kitten turned over to land on its feet, its jet black fur standing straight on end. Chisato jumped back as well and instinctively took a picture of the figure. It looked to be a young man with brown hair and eyes that unnerved her in the way that they burned red. He looked bedraggled and slightly emaciated, his fingernails long and untended, his feet bare, but there was a softness in his face as he stared at Chisato. Reaching into his brown rags, he pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to her.

"Chisato Madison, right? I'm a big fan. Read all yer stuff."

Chisato looked at the paper and saw that it was an essay she had written just last week. It was about advanced Nedian martial arts, about limiting energy and releasing it in rapid pulses to unleash almost infinite forces without breaking the Viltgance barrier. She had only ever written it on her laptop, never mailed it to anyone or shown anyone or even printed out a hard copy. Her laptop was protected from hackers. Expel didn't even have hackers. It barely even had computers. It was impossible for this man to have obtained that essay.

"Been a real help in my day-to-day life." he added, "An' that newspaper. Real interestin'. Nice pictures on page 3. That Dias sure is hot."

"Who are you?" she gasped.

"Sorry. Should'a introduced meself. I'm Eruaqs na Od." he held out a rather grubby hand for her to shake, "Pleased to meet ya. Travelled a long way to find ya."

The kitten chose this moment to hide behind Chisato, rubbing herself against the reporter's legs. Chisato picked her up and stroked her.

"I... what's this all about? Are you from a gang?" The kitten licked her face.

"I'm not from this planet." he said, "Tol' ya... come a long way. An'... I've come ta show ya somethin'. Somethin' ya really gotta see fer yerself. It's real important."

"Is it a good story?" she asked hopefully.

"More 'n that." he said, "C'mon, follow me. We're gonna be late."

With that, he jumped off the statue, landing expertly on the floor, and ran for the stairs to the floor above. Chisato ran after him. The kitten wriggled out of her arms and followed them.

-------------------------------------------------

"Where are you going?" she demanded.

"Top floor." he grunted.

"With only thr... two of us?" she doubted the kitten's combat ability, "We'll never make it!"

"I'm not thinkin' of fightin' my way through!" he yelled. Stopping at the top of the stairs, he turned a corner to a long corridor, flattened himself against a wall and knocked on what looked like a flagstone. It was hollow. He knocked on it again, three times rapidly and then twice slowly. It clicked and a section of the wall slid away, revealing a square passage big enough for them to walk through one at a time. It was pitch dark as there was no room for torches.

"If this is an ambush, you're dead." she whispered, "I'm a black belt in Nedian Kung Fu."

He shook his head, "Jus' a short cut. Or ya wanna go through all them things in the main corridors?"

"You have a point." she said, "But why are we going to the top floor anyway? All that's there is Gabrie Celeste and she'll give you nothing but a horrible death."

"No time." he gasped, running through the corridor. Chisato ran after the rapidly retreating figure of Eruaqs, the kitten under her legs. She had so many more questions ready to hurl rapidly at him like machine gun fire.

Where was Eruaqs from? How had he got here from another planet? Were there any more of his kind on Expel? What did he want from her? How did he hack her computer and print out that essay? What was a guy doing looking at the Page 3 boys? All the questions had to wait. She was in the middle of a labyrinth of Herculean trials, chasing a madman down a pitch black corridor. With a kitten.

Eventually the light returned and they ran into a larger chamber. A ladder was bolted to one wall. Eruaqs jumped onto it first. Scooping the kitten into her arms, Chisato followed him. On the next floor, he showed her a hidden trapdoor underneath a solid looking statue that moved on rollers when you kicked it in just the right part of the base. After that it was a service hatch used by the food demon, then a removeable panel in one of the speakers in the music demon's lair. The robot room had a sliding panel in the ceiling and on the tenth floor, the dragon let them past when Eruaqs said a password. He explained to her that these were all short-cuts known only to the thieves who worked to tend the dungeon, restocking empty chests, resetting traps, feeding monsters and repairing broken save points. These unseen assistants had worked here for centuries under a contract between Santa and Gabrie Celeste, who didn't care what illicit dealings they got up to as long as her dungeon was clean and well maintained.

What Chisato saw on the top floor was beyond anything she had ever seen or heard about before on Expel.

Gabrie Celeste wasn't there. Chisato had never heard of the angel of battle not being in her chamber on the top floor. She always believed that she was bound there. Instead, the room was empty and the roof was missing. It had opened up to reveal a dome of stars in the night sky. The shape of the mountain that the dungeon was carved into was also revealed - the top floor opened up into a tunnel to the peak of the mountain and stairs wound around the room in a spiral to the peak. Eruaqs began to ascend the stairs and Chisato followed with one nervous glance at the zodiac tapestries around the Gabrie Celeste's room, the blades of Orichalcum that hung across each other on the wall, the rug of wolf fur that served as her bed and the strange crystal mobile on the ceiling. She took a picture then left.

On the peak of the mountain was a spaceship hangar. Chisato knew that it was a spaceship hangar because a spaceship was docked there. Fairly small and slim for a ship, it was painted blue and silver with a spindly three-armed symbol that Chisato didn't recognise on the hull. The word 'REVORSE' was painted beside it in silver italics. The cargo hold of the ship was open and thieves were unloading crates from it and lowering them down into the dungeon. A foreman stood and yelled orders at them.

Chisato opened her mouth to ask what the hell was going on but Eruaqs put his finger to his lips and motioned for her to follow. Then he darted forwards. Before the thieves could see him, he was behind the crates. Chisato followed. They ducked under the crates and sneaked up to the ship. Climbing the crates, they hauled themselves up into the cargo hold and ran. Eruaqs led her out of the hold and into a corridor, then up into a ventilation shaft, where they hid. Chisato tried again to ask what the hell was going on but, to her irritation, he had fallen asleep.

She flipped open the cover of her reporter's notebook and began writing.

Everything I thought I knew about Expel is changing, she wrote. There are so many question to be asked. And every question raises more questions.

She soon lost herself in her work, choosing exactly the right words to have the biggest impact. She barely noticed when the cargo hold slid shut with a whine and the engines hummed to life. With a loud roar from the thrusters, the ship took off with Chisato inside.


	3. Chapter 3

He pressed a button and the background tune changed to 'Twisted Base'. Then he packed his laptop back into his bag, curled up into the booth and watched the chaos through the monitor. The oort clouds, cyan and turquoise, that drifted through the warm darkness of his mind calmed him down but he was still aware of the danger he was in. 

The whole space station rocked as the creatures battered it with razor sharp wings and pulses of dark energy, steel purple feathers flying. The music didn't even skip a beat. The shields flared up, a lilac dome around the blue cigar-shaped satellite. It was already breached in places and was losing power at a dangerous rate. There was nothing else to draw from - he had already deactivated all the systems on the satellite except the life support to his booth and the sound systems. The sound couldn't go off - it was the only thing giving him strength. If need be, he could maintain the whole defense system via his cybernetic links, from the safety of his booth - but only if the sound system held out. A shiver ran down his body. It wasn't just due to the failing heating system or the rather cold metal sheath running down his spine and the back of his head.

Another blip appeared on the radar. It was a ship; a slim, streamlined, almost needle-like ship with twin cannons. Painted a rather blinding shade of white, it also emitted a brilliant golden aura, or was that just the flare of its engines as it sped towards the satellite at a speed unattainable by any ship he had ever heard of? He trained the missile systems onto the new target. At a single command signal, a brace of missiles spurted out of the weapons hangar, leaving a faint red trail.

After five minutes of waiting, watching the ship swerve, roll and in some cases, short-range teleport out of the way of the missiles, bursts of laser fire tearing into the creatures on the way as they, too, tried to rake the ship with their claws, he was hailed.

"Stop firing at me. Now."

"Who is it?"

"You know damn well who it is." came the annoyed reply, "We need to leave."

"I won't abandon the Flying Battery."

"We can rebuild it later. We'll lose a lot more if you die. There are sound systems all over the galaxy but you're unique."

"Where will you take me?"

"To find the other children. I know where they are. You'll be happy together. Trust me."

After a few minutes' hesitation, he sent a command to open the doors to the docking bay. The ship slid in neatly. She appeared in the doorway, wings spread out, radiant in her celestial majesty. She wore a breastplate of orichalcum over a blue tabard with a symbol of Tria, the triple triangles, and held a halberd in one hand. Anybody else would have been overawed by her sheer presence but he was used to her being around. Her face was businesslike as ever. She pointed behind her and he shut the doors again just as one of the creatures rammed into them.

---------------------------------------------

The boy opened the foor to his own booth, unplugged himself, shouldered his laptop bag and took the woman's outstretched hand.

The kitten mewed and paced up and down the narrow corridor, swishing its tail. Chisato understood its discomfort. She, too, was beginning to feel restless. Initially the warmth, the humming of the machinery and the gentle sensation of movement as they glided through space was soothing, almost soporific. Now she was too hot, as well as cramped, hungry and thirsty. She was running out of things to write about. Strapping her camera around her neck, she walked through the pitch darkness of the ventilation shaft, her kitten plodding at her heels. Using her electronic notebook as a source of light, she worked the grille free and climbed out. She flattened herself against a wall and listened for signs of people. She wasn't so keen on meeting the owner of the ship quite yet; she was, after all, trespassing. There was no noise except for the regular beeps of machinery and the low hum of the engine. From the way she could hear the engines clearly, she guessed this was probably the engineering deck.

Chisato had never been in a spaceship before. She had heard of them, seen pictures of them in books left over from the old Nedian civilisation, even piloted land and orbital hovercraft, but had never experienced travel in deep space. She was struck by two things: how huge the vessel was, even a tiny ship like this made clearly for one person, and how she could barely feel her passage through space. She took pictures of everything, unsure where to start. She found a terminal on the wall that, when touched, displayed a map of the ship, the different locations flashing different colours depending, Chisato guessed, on how in need of repair they were. The level below her was the cargo hold, then above her was the living quarters and the bridge. She debated whether she should risk climbing to the upper level, where there was bound to be food, or staying hidden and going hungry.

A thought occurred to her: where was Eruaqs? She hadn't seen him at all while climbing out of the ventilation shaft. When she fell asleep he was already curled up in a ball, snoring loudly and talking nonsense to himself in his sleep. He must have woken up before her and wandered off. He can't have gone far, she thought, there are only three levels on the ship and she assumed he couldn't breathe in space.

She began her search on the lowest floor. The cargo bay was now full of large crates. They had been uploaded from the top of the mountain by the thieves. On Expel, a planet that didn't even have a concept of outer space yet! What were they delivering and to whom? She knew a little of interplanetary law from her many interrogations of Claude. They were breaking a million and one trade laws. You couldn't just drop things on underdeveloped planets. She searched a few compartments and empty crates, found no Eruaqs, gave up and searched the engineering deck again.

She soon found the engine. It had an antimatter drive. Chisato took several pictures of it. Nede used some antimatter technology, mostly in weapons systems, but nothing on the scale needed to power a spaceship. A glass cylinder the size of a room, it pulsed with dark purple light from a glowing liquid that was slowly crystallising. It was surrounded by monitors that showed the vital signs of the ship. Judging by the fact that she wasn't exploding, decompressing, freezing to death or meeting any one of the thousands of horrible fates that could befall one on a spaceship, she guessed that everything was fine. A small robot was repairing a slightly loose panel. Eruaqs was nowhere to be seen.

On the top level, she found him almost straight away. He was attempting to decant a chocolate bar from a vending machine and it wasn't working. With a rage that built up into an uncontrolled fury, he yelled at it, swore, shook it and kicked it. Chisato ducked behind a potted plant and watched him, amused. She took a photograph of him. The kitten peed on the plant.

He was too busy attacking the vending machine and she was too busy watching him to notice when there was a mechanical chime and a door opened. Out of the door walked a woman. She looked around Chisato's age but taller, with a lithe, confident warrior's gait. She had wavy brown hair that rested neatly behind her ears and wore a long blue coat with silver filigree and the three-armed spindly logo on the right hand pocket. It looked like some kind of military uniform. As soon as she stepped into the room, she hit a button on the wall and 'An Ideal' started up in the background. When she saw Eruaqs bent over a battered vending machine in a pile of shattered glass and empty wrappers, chocolate all over his face, she almost casually pulled a gun from her coat and pointed it at his head.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my ship?"


	4. Chapter 4

  
"Do you know what I do to stowaways on my ship?" 

Eruaqs didn't answer. He just stared at her, a flash of feverish hunger in those red eyes of his. He looked afraid and slightly guilty in the way that a dog does after being caught eating out of a bin.

"I throw them out of the airlock. Into space." she told him, "That's what I do to stowaways. Unless you can give me a good reason not to."

"I can work my passage!" protested Eruaqs.

"How? By wrecking my vending machines?"

"I'll... uh... wash the dishes!"

"Like I'd trust YOU with dishes! You're so shabby, I couldn't even sell you on the black market! Are you ANY use whatsoever? Haven't you even got any money to pay your passage?"

With her free hand, she grabbed him by the hair and forced him upright. Her flashing blue eyes examined him critically. She reached around to his scalp and pushed away his hair, revealing three slightly rusty cybernetic ports. He shrugged and took off his cloak, revealing several more down his spine and a large one on his chest. As though proud of his achievements, he flashed her a cheeky grin. She sighed and folded her arms.

"Those must be the worst maintained cyber jacks I've ever seen in my life. You stink of rust. I bet those don't even work. How have you not died of an infection yet?"

His face went red.  
"Hey, 've you SEEN the price of repairs? Friggin' rip-off."

"Then why'd you get cybered up in the first place?"

"Wasn't my own... hey, what do you care? Leave me alone already!"

"YOU'RE ON MY SHIP!"

At that moment, the kitten fell off the plant it was climbing up, went thud on the floor and yowled in protest. The woman turned around and shot at Chisato. Holding her hands above her head, the reporter stepped out from behind the potted plant.

"Hi, I'm Chisato Madison." she said, smiling, "I'm a reporter for the Nede Chronicle."

The woman's expression turned from one of cold indifference to surprise.  
"A reporter? Am I gonna be on the News?"

"You're not getting anything from me until you unhand my cameraman."

"That's your cameraman?" she pointed to the bedraggled Eruaqs on the floor, trying to scratch the back of his neck.

"Uh-huh. Don't you see the port for my USB camera? It's next to his third vertebra down. Where's my camera, Eruaqs?"

"I... uh... ate it."

"If I forgive you for trespassing, you'll do me a favour, right?"

"I suppose something could be arranged." replied Chisato.

"Your paper has a trade section for adverts, right?"

Chisato nodded.

"I want a big advert. It has to say 'Revorse Co., Interplanetary Trader's Guild of Fargett. Could you print my logo as well?"

Chisato hastily typed notes on her PDA. "There's only one problem with that, Mrs."

"Revorse. Commander Claris Revorse."

"Mrs. Revorse. Planet Expel is an underdeveloped planet. We don't have any interplanetary trade. You won't get any customers."

"If you're from an underdeveloped planet, how come you know so much about interplanetary trade?" she folded her arms, not taking her eye off Eruaqs.

"Can I use the loo now?" he asked. Commander Revorse sighed.

"This situation is obviously more complicated than either of us realises, Mrs. Madison. Let's go up to the conference room. We ought to be telling each other the entire truth."

She walked off and Chisato followed her down the corridor, leaving Eruaqs to dart off in the other direction, the kitten chasing him. They turned a corridor and walked down another corridor, spotlessly clean silver engraved with the Revorse trading logo. Ambient music played softly on speakers. It even had carpets.

"You do know its unlucky to bring cats on ships, right?" commented Revorse.

"Its bad news to take that cat anywhere," agreed Chisato, "But it follows me. I can't really do much about it."

Commander Revorse reached out a slender hand and keyed in a password for a lock on the door. It beeped and swished open, admitting them into a room with a polished oak table, comfortable leather seats, a computer and a large Revorse logo on the wall, along with a number of other dials and terminals. She sat at one of the seats, ordered coffee from a dispenser in the wall and bade Chisato sit opposite her. She then turned to the display on the wall. It showed stars - the region of space they were drifting through, endless and majestic, illuminated by a pulsing blue star.

"We both have questions." she said, "Who wants to begin?"

"How long have you been trading on Expel and with whom?"

"One question at a time please." she tapped her fingers on the desk, "I've been trading with Don Santiana for five years. Mostly ore and minerals. He's a good customer."

"Do you realise that what you are doing is entirely illegal?"

"Trading with thieves? Not the cleanest operation in the galaxy, but it pays well."

"Expel is listed as an underdeveloped planet. You're breaking interplanetary diplomacy laws."

"Its listed wrongly. And I believe the politically correct term is now 'developing'."

Chisato fiddled with her PDA awkwardly. The woman's azure eyes wouldn't leave hers. Finally, after seconds that felt like hours, she responded.

"I could make you public." she said, "But it would plunge Expelian society into chaos. In the aftermath of what happens to a suddenly awakened underdeveloped planet... it wouldn't be much of a place to set up trading operations."

"Then do it gradually. We Fargettians have long lifespans."

"You're asking me to facilitate a vital step in an entire planet's evolutionary development by myself." she replied, "Just so you can trade."

"You can't be land monkeys forever."

Chisato considered this a moment longer. It would be possible. If she had resources, time, money and staff. If only the Nede Chronicle still existed... but in that situation, she would have never ended up in this mess. She would be safe and happy on her own planet, taking pictures of Dias in the shower.

"I have questions for you now." said Commander Revorse, "How do you know about the UP3 if you're from an underdeveloped planet?"

"I'm... not local. A refugee. My planet was destroyed."

"Nede, huh?" Revorse smiled at her surprised reaction, "You mentioned Nede. I thought that was a bit funny."

"You know about us?"

"It was kind of hard not to notice. I was out flying when it happened. I was nearly blinded by the explosion. Blast knocked me off course." she said, "I'm surprised anyone survived that. I have one more thing to ask you."

"Go on." Chisato glared at her. She wasn't pleased at how insensitive this glorified pirate was being.

"As a reported, how good are you at handling... sensitive matters? Matters that shouldn't really be plastered over the front page?"

"I'm not lying, if that's what you mean."

"No, I don't expect you to lie, I just want you to be very careful about when and where you release..."

Just then, Chisato was hurled to the floor as a massive tremor rocked the ship, coupled with a loud bang. An alarm blared and a red light flashed on and off.

"We're under attack!" yelled Commander Revorse.

-----------------------------------------------------

The boy sat in the observation deck and pressed his face against the glass, watching the vast celestial ocean glittering all around him. He felt so small, so insignificant, drifting in the infinity of the galaxy. Those starry depths could just swallow him up, he could just drift forever, lost in timeless oblivion, and not a square inch of outer space would care. He shivered. Reaching into his smart-suit pocket, he changed the song playing on his MP3 player from 'New World' to 'Decisive Moment of Truth', a song that always raised his morale. During those long, lonely nights he played it to drive away the hidden horrors that plagued his sleep.

The monsters were real now. They had come for him. Now his home - his entire life - had been destroyed. He couldn't protect it. Even with his special abilities, he couldn't protect it. Tears welled up in his eyes again, tears of frustration and grief. He was nothing, now. Nobody, adrift in infinity.

"See that blue planet?"

He opened one eye and lifted his head from his knees. As usual, his guardian had entered without him hearing of seeing anything. She was a valkyrie, an angel of battle, victor of a thousand conquests and more. If she wanted to, she could kill him without him ever registering her presence. Or she could keep him alive even if a thousand assassins were sent after him. She leant against the rail with the deceptively lazy grace of a cat.

"The planet orbiting the big purple sun." she drew her halberd and pointed at the screen, "That's Roak. That's where we're going. Look how close it is. We'll be there soon."

"Shouldn't you be watching the ship?"

What little experience he had of autopilot systems had taught him that they ranged from completely useless to a dangerous liability.

She yawned and stretched her arms. A holographic terminal appeared at her fingertips, bleeping. She poked it and the ship's course changed by a fraction of a nano-degree. The boy blinked - he had never heard of such an advanced holographic interface before - but lost interest and turned the volume up. She gave him a look, shook her head and stared up at the stars herself.

Roak. Moore, to its natives. The birthplace, from which all the people of the Tria galaxy arose. It had been millennia. The little brat, in his childish impatience, thought he had spent a long time on that space station of his. She had lived in one room for two hundred years. Her last visit to Roak? Three and a half thousand years ago. Would anything have remained the same at all? Even mountains and rivers could move during that kind of timescale. Nobody - nobody except her own people - lived that long. Only one thing was certain: the person she wanted was on Roak. Their presence burned into her brain, a flaring emerald aura, an energy that made her hair prickle as though it would stand on end.

Gwestia. I'm coming to find you.

The little boy had fallen asleep, curled up in a ball on the floor. She carefully stepped out of the room and returned to the bridge. Like the ship's computers, she did not sleep but watched over the ship's course, monitored engines and life support systems, an immortal sentinel.


	5. Chapter 5

  
Another explosion knocked Chisato off fer feet and sent her flying down the corridor, her camera floating along after her. Commander Revorse did not break her stride. The merchant had obviously been trained in ship combat. Chisato guessed that she could probably fight in all sorts of gravities and knew something about ship-to-ship tactics as well. The reporter knew nothing of such things. However, she knew she had to get pictures of the battle. Warfare in space... her people back on Nede, who hadn't experienced war for hundreds of years, had never seen such a thing. She couldn't imagine what the primitivcae people of Expel would think of it! 

Her slow, painful progress eventually led her to the bridge, where she dragged her bruised, slightly space-sick body into a corner and began taking photographs.

"HOW MANY?" screamed Commander Revorse. She jumped into the high leather Captain's chair and plugged herself via several jacks in the base of her skull directly into the ship's computers. Chisato followed her finger to the display screen in front of them.

Hundreds of bird-like creatures surrounded the ship, attacking it with animal ferocity. Each one around twenty feet tall, their plumage was deep plum, each with two pairs of wings and a long plumed tail. Their razor sharp beaks and feathers ture gashes in the shields as they hurled themselves bodily at the vessel, their cries more like the grating hum of faulty machines than a bird's warbling. Sorougme opened their beaks and hurled waves of shadow energy at the ship from a source that Chisato could only assume was heraldic magic, the concentrated will of an intelligence too alien for her own mind to understand at all, let alone empathise with.

"Are those... the XINE?" she asked, bracing herself against the impact of another cluster of energy bolts. Commander Revorse nodded.

"The XINE don't attack in these kind of numbers!" cried the merchant, frantically running her hands over the controls, "You see bands of five or six... not three hundred!"

"It's like an army..." said Chisato, shuddering. She hated war. All Nedians did. They knew how many people it killed, jow many civilisations crumbled to dust under its bloody banners. She always assumed the XINE were just animals. But what kind of animals used magic? Was she really seeing an invasion fleet from an alien race?

"We can't hold out." said the merchant, "I'm taking evasive maneouvers!"

"But we're surrounded!"

"We have to try!" she yelled. With a keystroke, the ship's cloaking device flickered on. The XINE saw straight through the illusion - they were intelligent enough to know there was still a ship there - but a few more of them missed, not sure exactly where the ship was. Her keen eyes picked out the weakest flank in the swarm and and executed a complex roll, darting between the giant birds.

"Shields down 90!" she yelled. They were still being hit a lot. Chisato gripped her camera and prayed to Tria.

"WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT?"

Chisato jumped. Out of nowhere, a cluster of missiles whined into view and exploded around the ship, tearing apart around 30 of the XINE. The barrage was followed by a stream of laser fire that swept through the ranks of the XINE. Their broken corpses fell out into space en masse, clouds of feathers whipping up into a cyclone. The remaining XINE began screeching, blind panic showing in their grating voices as they scattered in all directions, trying to locate their new attackers. Suddenly, there was a low humming noise that vibrated through the ship and hurt Chisato's ears. She smelt rust in the air. With a word that sounded like a rather filthy expletive in an alien language, Commander Revorse grabbed a control stick and forced it downwards, plunging the ship into a nose dive. Chisato's stomach lurched. She grabbed the rail and hung onto it, her legs dangling in the air. She heard an ear-splitting roar like space itself being torn apart. The stench grew unbearable. As she looked upwards at the display, she saw a bolt of pure dark energy big enough to swallow the ship lancing across the sky, its core writhing with the raw power of a black hole. The XINE who failed to fly out of the way were instantly vaporised, reduced to their bare subatomic components, hundreds of them.

"Antimatter cannon." said Commander Revorse between swear words, "Someone's packing some serious firepower."

"Where's it coming from?"

"I don't know." she admitted, looking up at the retreating XINE as they were torn apart by another stream of laser fire, "Let's hope they're friendly or we can outrun them."

She cranked a lever up as far as it would go and the ship sped up. Jarred by the sudden jolt, Chisato really did let go of the rail and plummetted towards the opposite wall. Fortunately, she fell into the automatic door, which opened up for her so she could float down the corridor away from the bridge. She grabbed the wrecked vending machine for support. After a few minutes, the ship righted itself and she dropped to the floor. She felt nauseous, but realised that she hadn't eaten anything , so had nothing to bring up. She was, in fact, hungry. She hadn't eaten a meal since she set off into the Cave of Trials. She looked at the vending machine. It had almost been raided clean. There were a couple of chocolate bars left, which she unwrapped and ate. Where was Eruaqs, anyway? She was worried he had been hurt in the battle, or that Commander Revorse had wired him to the engine as some kind of macabre power source.

The first thing she found was her kitten. Lola was curled up in a small furry ball, asleep on a bed in the personal quarters. Black cat hair was strewn all over the white sheets. Lola mewed in protest as she was picked up.

"Have you seen Eruaqs?" she asked it. It didn't answer, but nuzzled her face and fell asleep again in her arms.

Chisato looked everywhere - in all the bays of the cargo hold, in the engine room, the living quarters, the bridge and the medical bay. Suddenly, there was a chime over the intercom. Commander Revorse was summoning her to the bridge.

"What's happening now?" she asked.

"We're being hailed!"

---------------------------

The communications channel was beeping. Commander Revorse gave the order to accept the incoming signal and a face appeared on the screen. It was a woman. Despite having a humanoid face, she was obviously not human. Her doll-like face was ageless, oddly pale, her hazel eyes never blinking, her mouth expressionless. She sat on a black leather chair, dwarfed by the mechanical towers she was plugged directly into. Chisato knew what an android was, had met one before, but never a friendly one that worked properly. Indalecio Gabriel, the most advanced AI on Nede, and his servants had almost caused the destruction of the Universe.

"This is Marietta la Verne, Director of the Battle Fortress Chronicle." She spoke through a speaker headset, "Your ship is entering our airspace without authorisation. Intruders will be met with deadly force. Please state your purpose or leave."

"This is Commander Revorse of the Trader's Guild of Fargett." replied the merchant, "Our intentions are peaceful. Our ship is badly damaged and we are running out of fuel. We request assistance and are prepared to trade."

"You will be met outside our border by a ship carrying fuel and supplies. Do not attempt to enter our territory."

"Received and understood."

The communications port was closed at the other end, leaving them to watch a small ship slowly approaching our own.

"They're hiding something." said Chisato. The merchant waved her away.

"There's nothing we can do about it in our condition." she said, "We're lucky they don't open fire. We're trespassing on their territory and we could be anyone."

"How do we know that's really an aid ship?"

"If it's not, I can always shoot it down." the merchant assured her, "In our situation, all we can really do is wait and see."

Biting back the hundred-and-one questions forming in her mind, she watched the screen. Stroking Lola helped to relieve her anxiety. The kitten wasn't at all concerned about their situation. She purred and rubbed her face against Chisato's hand. The ship soon arrived. A small white craft, it was armed but did not appear to be attacking. It opened up a communication channel and requested docking permission. Commander Revorse granted the request and the two of them headed down to the docking bay to open the doors. The ship maneouvred carefully next to the Revorse and the two locked onto each other. A slender, red-haired man walked through the doors, clearly Tetrageniont with his long, spindly limbs, pinched, angular face and the third eye in his forehead. He wore a black suit similar to Chisato's own. Commander Revorse met him first and proffered him a hand. He bowed gracefully and kissed her hand. Then his eyes met Chisato's and he gasped, frozen into place.

"You looking at something, pervert?" Commander Revorse asked, slightly annoyed.

"Chisato?" he asked, "Chisato MADISON?"

"How the hell do you know my name?" demanded Chisato.

"Chisato, it's me! Jan Orvue! Remember, from the 'Ask Jan' column?"

Chisato would have dropped her camera if it hadn't been on a strap around her neck. Her face went as pale as his own.

"Please forgive me. I thought... we all thought you had died on Nede!"

"We? How many..."

"Thirty-four. Thirty-four survivors. Not enough to run an orbital space fortress that isn't orbiting anything any more, but we've been on a massive recruitment drive."

"A what now?" asked Commander Revorse, her hands on her hips, "Do you two know each other? Stop chatting and get me my supplies NOW!"

"My apologies, Mrs. Revorse, your supplies will be delivered promptly." he bowed to the merchant, "Chisato, I think you'd better come with me."

Chisato looked over her shoulder. "Eruaqs..."

"What did you say?"

"There's another passenger... Eruaqs na Od... I can't find him and I don't want to leave him alone with that pirate... er, I mean, on this ship. I'm sorry."

"Chisato, we scanned your ship for life. There were two human-sized signals and one smaller signal - your cat. There's nobody else on your ship."

Chisato glared at Commander Revorse, fury burning in her eyes.

"Did you throw him out of the airlock?" she demanded in a cold voice. Commander Revorse shook her head.

"I've been unable to find him either. I wanted to take a better look at those ports - they're a model I haven't seen before, you know, and I'm rather a connoseur - but I can't find him since the battle."

"Since the battle..." Chisato scratched her head. Her face went white. A horrible thought had occurred to her. "Commander Revorse, do the XINE... take prisoners?"

"They're birds, Chisato. If they grabbed your friend, they'd have eaten him by now."

"Th... that's terrible!"

"Chisato!" Jan took her hand, "If Eruaqs is still alive, the Chronicle can find him! We have more firepower and better tracking devices than this... pirate ship!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" screamed Commander Revorse, pointing a gun at Jan's head, "GET OFF MY SHIP! OFF! ALL OF YOU!"

Chisato grabbed the young man's hand as he ran back down the corridor into his own ship. It was very different to the Revorse. Although it had none of the class of the Revorse, it was much more modern. The lighting was a soothing shade of cool blue and the music was upbeat dance anthems such as 'Preemptive Attack' and 'Moon Base'. It had proper holographic terminals and nothing was coin-operated or carpeted. A young woman with green hair waved at them, jabbing a fork into some kind of processed meal. He led her down the corridor and stopped at a door. He pressed his palm against a pad and the door slid open. He bowed and ushered her in. It was his standard-issue personal living quarters - it had a bed, desk, chair and computer. Beautiful holographic images played over the walls, a shower of fine crystalline raindrops that sparkled every colour of the rainbow. Lola tripped over a wire, became tangled up in it and fled under the bed. Jan laughed.

"Welcome to the ship. It doesn't have a name. It's just a ship."

"What in Tria's name is going on?" demanded Chisato, sitting on the bed. The Tetrageniont took her hands and looked at her with dark brown, serious eyes.

"I'm sorry you weren't told, Chisato. Communications must have failed before word could reach you. It happens to a lot of people lower down in authority - people like us. I only found out because I was in the Director's office at the time."

"Found out WHAT?"

"The Fortress Chronicle. Our space station." he said in a sad voice, "The Nede Chronicle had an evacuation programme planned twenty-three years before even the Government had any idea what was going on. We survived, Chisato. We're still broadcasting."


	6. Chapter 6

Eruaqs na Od's face remained impassive, almost bored, as the XINE surrounded him. Anyone watching him would barely have recognised him. His long straggly hair now had a thick, vibrant sheen to it, swept behind him as it was buffeted by the energy surging from him. His pale skin glowed with health. His smouldering red eyes now blazed. Even his clothes looked new - instead of ill-fitting rags, he now wore a brown cloak draped over a slightly lighter brown trenchcoat, clasped by a pin with the Tria logo. He hung in the middle of space as though it was the most natural thing in the world, his arms casually at his sides, a sad look in his eyes. 

A rush of ecstatic energy and at the same time, the melancholy of an entire galaxy filled him. And the pain, the endless pain... One of the XINE screeched at him, its call mechanical, the voice of a rusty golem. He felt the weight of their hive mind pressing down upon his consciousness, each life a tiny purple pulse in a vast, sprawling network like a cold black wasp's nest. He understood the memes it projected across space and their contents made him laugh, a laugh as dark and devoid of humour as space itself. He understood those concepts better than he understood himself.

"You call this a hostile takeover?" he replied in a soft, expressionless tone, "You don't know the meaning of the word!"

He lifted one arm, his fingers sweeping through space. He blinked once. An crimson aura of raw energy consumed him. Waves and waves of the energy rippled from his body, crackling as one hit a XINE. Its feathers smouldered and it flapped, squawking, as it desperately tried to keep control of its own body. Two more dodged out of the way but six were ripped apart by the shock waves.

"This... he said, release another wave, exhilirated rather than drained by the immense power he manipulated as easily as breathing, "Is a hostile takeover."

"This is a hostile takeoever!" he repeated, idly dodging a pulse of energy with his floating dance, releasing ever more waves. Feathers of steel, gouts of flame and copper ichor rained down upon him, staining space the colour of rust, a nebula of decay. He closed his eyes.

"THIS IS A HOSTILE TAKEOVERRRRRRRRR!"

A bloody flash tore through his mind. It was as if every cell, every subatomic particle of his being was burning up, releasing the fire of the galaxy's core, the pain and rage of millions of years, the passion of Tria. A grating scream filled his ears, images of the Hive burning, frenzied calls to every end of the galaxy.

"TRIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he screamed, "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

Then he was falling. A cold wave washed over him. He was drowning, drowning in the endless ocean of space. A star ocean...

-------------------------------------------

It was almost too idyllic.

The dew sparkled on the emerald grass, reflecting the golden morning sun. A soft breeze rippled through it. The little girl ran through the grass towards a wooden fence in the distance. She wore a long white dress and her flaxen hair was woven into braids. She stopped at a the fence and sat on the stile, watching the large white furry blobs as they bounced across the next field, their ears flopping up and down. Some grazed, some left, some moved around haphazardly with some animal purpose. Two were mating.

Gwesty rose early every day to watch the Bunnies. It was her favourite part of the day. They were peaceful, intelligent, curious animals. When you watched them as closely and as often as she did, you saw the differences between them. Most people just saw them as the animals they bet on at the races every weekend. They had never seen a Bunny in the wild in their life.

She reached inside her cape and retrieved a few lettuce leaves. Leaping over the stile, she slowly approached the Bunnies. A small female Bunny stopped, turned around, sniffed and came bounding towards her. She held out an arm with the lettuce leaves in the palm of her hand. Deft for its size, it grabbed them and ate them, retreating again. She sat and watched it, her movements deliberately accentuating her calm lack of hostility. Having finished its snack, the Bunny gave her another suspicious look. She took her bag and upended the contents - half a lettuce - onto the floor. As the Bunny jumped forwards to grab the lettuce, it allowed her to stroke its soft white fur.

Gwesty smiled. If the Bunny trusted her, with time and patience, it would let her ride on its back. Then she would have her own Bunny mount, to bound across rolling fields, to visit distant towns. She could enter it in races and become a famous Bunny racing champion. She could ride into battle with an armoured Bunny and slay Asmodeus...

Suddenly, the Bunny chirruped and bounced away, leaving its food mid bite. Gwesty jumped and looked around. That wasn't natural behaviour for a Bunny. They never left food unless they were injured or startled.

Then she saw it. A woman, walking slowly through the field towards her. She was tall and beautiful, with bright golden hair like Gwesty's own, that seemed to flow behind her. Gwesty hid in the grass; the woman scared her. She had some kind of weapon, like a spear. Was she a soldier from Astral? The innkeeper told her never to talk to strangers, especially ones with weapons.

The Bunnies fled. The woman kept on walking towards her. She was looking directly at her. Gwesty's heart raced.

"Its okay. I won't hurt you."

The woman's accent was odd. Gwesty had seen a traveller from Lacour before. She had met people travelling from all over the world in the inn she lived at. None of them sounded like this woman.

"You're really bad at hiding." she said, "I won't go away if you close your eyes, you know. I'm real."

"Go away." muttered Gwesty, "I don't talk to strangers."

"I'm not a stranger. I've been a friend of your mother for years. And your grandmother. And her grandmother. I've been watching over you for a long time."

Gwesty glared at her, her emerald eyes as sharp as stones.

"I haven't got a mummy. And I don't know you. Go away now."

"Don't you want to know where your real mother is, Gwesty?" the woman replied calmly, "I can show you if you come with me. There's somewhere you. need to go and something you have to do."

"You're scaring the Bunnies." she repeated, clenching her fists.

The woman pointed over Gwesty's shoulder. The little girl heard a chirrup and felt a soft face nuzzling her.

"You can take Bunny with you, if you like." she said, "There's another child for you to talk to. You're going to fly on a big ship in the stars. To a different world."

"Ships can't fly!"

The woman sighed and muttered something under her breath about 'underdeveloped planets'. Ignoring her, Gwesty shouted, grabbed the Bunny by both ears and jumped on its back. The animal gave a loud squeak of surprise and bounded off in a random direction. The grass was a blur under its oversized but powerful feet and the woman soon became a dot in the distance.


	7. Chapter 7

The Bunny stopped at the foot of the mountain where the grass grew sparse and yellow. It chirruped and shook itself. Digging her fingers into its soft fur, it was all she could do to keep herself from being flung off the animal's back and into the sheer rock face. Lowering herself down, she managed just to fall off and roll onto her back. A flock of birds flew overhead, their keening calls like seagulls.

Then the birds scattered and she saw that one wasn't a bird. It hung in the air, silvery white, glittering in the sun, twice the size of any bird she had ever seen.

She ran. The grass was wet around her ankles. Her feet ached - she thought one shoe was coming loose at the sole. Her breath came out in rags. She counted the fences, not daring to look behind her. Soon she saw the dirt track that led up to the Lolloping Lagomorph, where she lived. The inn sign, a large brown Bunny in mid-jump, swung in the breeze that suddenly became stronger. She ran up and banged on the door until it was opened by a large, fat man in a brown tunic. The innkeeper blinked, stepped outside and looked around. He didn't appear to have noticed her standing on the doorstep.

"Let me in! Please!" she gasped. The innkeeper looked right past her. He looked around again, shook his head, walked back into the inn and slammed the door shut.

She turned on her heel and ran. She ran down the path, back along the lane and into the field. Then she let out a scream of rage, confusion and fear that echoed up into the calm sphere of the darkening sky. It felt like she was shouting at the cigar-shaped thing in the sky, reprimanding it as though it was the source of all her troubles, even though she had never seen anything like it before and had no idea what it was.

As if in answer, music started playing. Loud music, all around her, from out of nowhere. She recognised it as 'New World', a hymn to Tria. Music in the sky... a choir of Tria's Valkyries... the Bunnies were bouncing around in circles and chirruping in time to the music. She knew animals were easily affected by the presence of spirits... were the Bunnies responding to something she couldn't see? She walked towards them. The small female recognised her and bounded up to her, chirruping. She stroked it gently and whispered into its ear.

"What's happening, Bunny?" she asked, pointing into the sky, "What's happening to us?"

The Bunny chirped and nibbled her fingers, searching for the lettuce leaves that it remembered from last time. Gwesty yelped and swatted it away.

"We must pray." she told it, closing her eyes and clasping her hands together, "We must pray to Tria for our souls. Then it can't hurt us."

The darkness grew thicker and more oppressive, the wind stronger and the air colder. She could hear a faint buzzing that was also growing louder, and a ticking like a great pendulum. Reciting Tria's prayer over and over again, she did not open her eyes again, afraid for what she would see. She prayed that Tria would send her to safety. Somewhere else. She didn't care where. Somewhere far away.

--------------------------------

The boy sat in the Communications Officer's chair and admired his handiwork. He was amazed at how much he had achieved in a short space of time. His little MP3 player, connected to the ship's communication channels via a USB port, had produced such a loud noise that he could broadcast all the way to the planet's surface. He played 'New World'. That was what this was: a completely new world. To him, at least. From the observation window, it looked like a beautiful blue sphere with wispy white clouds. As far as he could remember, he had never been on a planet. The lady told him he had been born on a planet, a big white planet, the biggest in the Tria galaxy, bustling with people, massive cities, ships docking and taking off around the clock. He couldn't imagine anything being that big. He missed his satellite. His new sound system was fun but he hadn't asked the lady first and he was worried he would be punished.

"Nice music."

He turned around. Once again, he hadn't spotted her lounging in the Captain's chair, one hand tapping keys on the ship controls rather impatiently.

"We're leaving." she said.

"But I thought you were going to see that girl..."

"She won't come with us." she said.

"You can't make her come?" he couldn't imagine anyone successfully putting up resistance against this maiden of warfare.

"I don't even know where she is any more." she said, "We don't have time to look."

"Where are we going now?"

"To the Central Hub."

"Will I see my parents?"

"You may well do."

She turned back to the controls, ignoring him. With barely a sound, the ship took off and the cerulean sphere receded from view. He changed the background music to a sad song, although not a Game Over tune - the poor kid was terrified of them. Poor boy, she thought, I wish I could be sure. I have no idea who his father is - he's just an entity - and his mother does whatever the hell she wants to. I'm failing these kids. I failed to find Gwesty and now she's gone. Still, I know now that I don't have to worry about her any more. If I can't find her, the XINE can't find her. Nothing on Tria will be able to get to that girl if she doesn't want them to. But does she know how to wield that power of hers? She's only an eight-year-old kid... she was responding automatically from fear and anger... can she really control the forces she's unleashed upon the world?

She watched the little boy carefully change the track, sweat forming on his brow, and prayed to Tria that Gwesty wouldn't have to learn in the same way as him.


	8. Chapter 8

"Just a trader." reported the young man. Jan Orvue. Her facial recognition software identified him and brought up his staff profile in front of her vision. "We searched her ship thoroughly. There's nothing suspicious at all."

"Attacked by hundreds of XINE, you say?" Marietta la Verne tapped her fingers on her throne of wires and titanium, her consciousness divided as she watched the 52 different monitors, dials and sensors from the machines directly wired to her central nervous system. If any one of them reported an error in the internal workings of the base, she could fix the problem with a thought, a single movement.

"That's what she claims, ma'am."

"XINE don't attack in those kind of numbers." she said, "And they don't attack merchant ships."

"Even if she's lying ma'am - and merchants always lie - she has made no attempt at hostility and we have no reason to suspect malicious intent."

"I hear you found one of our reporters on her ship."

"Chisato Madison, ma'am."

"How is she now?"

"She's recovering in the medical bay. She's taken quite a psychological shock. Last time I went to visit, she was interrogating the nurses, so I guess she's making a fast recovery."

"Its always good to have new staff on board." she said, "Provide our merchant with the supplies she needs, but I want a full report on the alleged XINE attack and an explanation of exactly how one of our reporters ended up on her ship."

"Yes, ma'am." he saluted. Suddenly, she was distracted by an alarm sounding. It was from the automated defense systems - the station was under attack!

She opened up a display window to the base perimeter. Clusters of hundreds of figures were converging upon them, emitting pulses of energy. Zooming in, she could vaguely make out winged shapes.

"Battle stations. Put the whole base on red alert." she ordered calmly. With a mental command, she activated each of the defense systems in turn. Orbital lasers, antimatter cannons, pulse bombs and giant railguns began firing, a steady stream of energy that poured out into the sky like a deadly screensaver, already taking down the few XINE that were already closing in to attack. The shields flared up, a rose penumbra. The battle had begun.

In any normal space station, the civilians would have retreated into the most well-protected areas by now. This, however, was Battle Fortress Chronicle. Half of the station staff were now in the broadcasting studio, filming the whole thing, while the others took ships out into the front lines to take report live. Marietta watched her fearless crew with pride. She wished she could be out there herself. One of her hands twitched, reaching involuntarily for the laser pistol she wore at her belt. Every byte of her programming sang to the tune of the war drums. However, her place was in the command centre, maintaining the systems and giving orders to the machines. A few bolts of energy struck the shields as a XINE flew too close. A reporter, a young woman with green hair - Genevieve Adolkristina - shot at it with a plasma rifle, injuring its wing and forcing it to retreat. Jan cheered. Marietta, although her emotion chip was not very advanced or responsive, was also pleased with the direction of the battle. The first charge from the antimatter cannon had ripped through the XINE's frontal assault, evaporating fifty of them instantly. It was now being hastily recharged. The XINE were now in disordered groups of 10 or so, easy for the lasers and pulse bombs to pick off. The way they flew around in blind panic made Marietta guess that their leader had gone down and they were unable to operate without a strong command. They obviously hadn't expected such a tiny satellite to be so heavily guarded. It was designed to withstand an attack from the Earth Federation military; Marietta had no illusions that the people of Earth would respect their protected status as reporters if they ever dug up some real dirt about their government.

"Unidentified object approaching!" came a report from the defense systems. Marietta looked at the map and saw a single bright red pulse of light among the dark purple XINE. It didn't appear to be either attacking or assisting the aliens; its flight path was jerky and erratic, clearly out of control. That's not an ordinary energy signature, she realised. As soon as she energy scanned it, the meters went berserk, the numbers so off the scale that the system was actually overloading.

"Send a ship out there to intercept it NOW!" she ordered, "And take extreme caution!"

Five seconds after the message was relayed, two of the ships on the front line changed course and headed towards the bright red glow. They circled it from a distance for a while. Then one ship opened a communications channel back to the command centre. Marietta accepted.

"It's a person!" came the confused cry.

"A what?"

"Person, ma'am."

"Bring it here at once."

She ordered Jan out of the room with instructions to check up on Chisato again. Then she waited. After another five minutes, the door chimed. She pressed a button to open it.

He looked about to collapse from exhaustion. He was bleeding from his left nostril. Two members of staff helped him stand up. His gaze snapped to hers, a look of unrelenting sadness like the lonely longing of space itself.

"This is a hostile takeover." he gasped.

"Indeed." she said, motioning to her staff, "Leave this man with me. I have the situation under control."

They deposited him on a seat opposite hers and almost fled from the control room. She continued staring at him, blinking infrequently, her expression as emotionless as always.

"Where's the brand new power limiter I gave you?" she demanded.

"Tria..." he whispered, coughing up blood. She sighed.

"You lost it again, didn't you? If only you'd tell me where it is you go and what it is you do."

"Why, Tria?" he gave her a feverish look.

"But you'll forget as soon as I put your limiter back, won't you?" she gave him another long-suffering sigh, then grabbed him by one hand and bodily dragged him to the engineering deck.  
-----------------------

Chisato woke up.

She was in the medical room, lying on the bed. The room was clean, white and sterile with machines that beeped, a bedside table with a glass of water and a single chair. Lola was curled up on the chair, purring in her sleep. Chisato leaned over to stroke her and winced. Her head felt like she had been hit on the head with a hammer. The low hum of the space station's propulsion systems sounded like a roar. She groaned, reached for the glass of water and drank it.

"Welcome back, Chisato. I'm glade you're feeling better."

The reporter looked up. Jan Orvue had let himself into the room. He stood in the doorway and gave her a look of concern.

"I would like to give you a tour of the station. Are you well enough to walk?"

"I'll be fine." she stood up. The noise woke Lola up. The kitten mewed, hissed and attacked Jan's ankles. "Although I'm not convinced that I'm not just hallucinating or dreaming the whole thing up."

"If you are dreaming, kindly do not wake up. I do not wish to be erased from existence."

Jan offered her an arm. She took it and let him lead her out of the medical room and down a corridor. Old Nede Chronicle front pages were framed on the walls and the theme tune of their news channel - 'Kamikaze' played over the sound system, giving a pleasant nostalgic effect.

"The living quarters, rest rooms and dining room are on this level. The gravity's higher down here because of our orbit. Its more like that of a planet, so its more therapeutic." he explained, pointing to a door in front of them, "That's the computer room. Most of our staff are slightly obsessed with an online game called Eternal Sphere. Personally, I think its a load of overpriced twaddle."

"On the higher floors, we house the heavier machines, the engine and the generators. The lower gravity makes the parts easier to lift when we need to repair something. On the middle ring are Marietta's control room... and this..."

With a dramatic flourish, he walked up to the elevator and pressed the button for the next floor up. This floor was bustling with activity - people yelling and running, some pushing trolleys filled with heavy equipment, some trying to pile it in their arms, machines beeping, lights flashing, doors opening and slamming shut, televisions blaring out their noise. Excited by the commotion, Lola darted off in a random direction. Chisato sighed.

"One day that stupid cat'll accidentally fall out of an airlock or something." she told him, "What IS this place? It looks like our old office."

"It's the broadcasting studio! I knew you'd like it!" he grabbed her arm and pulled her through a random door. She gasped. It was like one of her wildest dreams. Rows of computers everywhere, hooked up to an intergalactic teleconference suite, a high-powered telescope and a ridiculously fast broadband connection. Screens piled high to the ceiling broadcasted television and radio channels from all over the galaxy. Today there was obviously a Bunny racing grand national, as this was the only thing on television. The green-haired young woman was yelling at the top of her voice at someone in an Earth Federation uniform on one screen.

"Hey, CHISATO!"

Several workers ran up to her and greeted her with hugs before bombarding her with questions in traditional Chronicle style. She managed to squirm out of their grasp.

"We all thought you died on Nede!" said the green-haired girl.

"Died? Me? Hah! I was THERE, Genevieve! Fienal Tower! I was recording the final battle between Claude Kenni and Indalecio Gabriel!"

Jan laughed.  
"You haven't lost your touch, Chisato. We need someone as crazy... er, I mean, as spirited as you on the team!"

"Nice to see you've been keeping the place in order for me." she said with a mischievous grin, "I still can't believe any of this, though. I can't believe we all survived..."

"Nothing can stop the truth." said Jan, "And now we're playing an important role in intergalactic diplomacy again. You won't believe the things we've managed to achieve already..."

Chisato sighed, "And all I've managed to do is spend five years stranded on an underdeveloped planet."

"Developing." Genevieve corrected her automatically.

Suddenly, Jan screamed and almost jumped five feet in the air. Before he could run out of the room and down the corridor, a plasma rifle was held to the back of his head.

"Where are we going in such a hurry, Mr. Orvue?" said an emotionless voice. Chisato looked at the small figure standing in the doorway. It was the android who she had talked with over the communication channel back on the Revorse.

"N... nowhere! I wasn't avoiding work! I was... er...:

"He was showing me around." provided Chisato.

"Thank you for seeing to Mrs. Madison." said Marietta, "Welcome aboard the Battle Fortress Chronicle, Mrs. Madison. I am Director Marietta la Verne."

Chisato shook her hand. It felt cold and synthetic, like a doll. The reporter was once again amazed at the quality of her AI and the realism of her physical appearance. She had never heard of a Director la Verne before. The management of the Chronicle had obviously changed hands since she last worked for them. Knowing her colleagues, they probably mutinied and overthrew the last Director for not properly distributing the information about the space station.

"You were declared dead." admitted Marietta, "So we didn't keep you on the staff roll. If you wish to renew your contract with us, you will be required to sign our updated contract. We are an intergalactic organisation now, Mrs. Madison. We have to take things more seriously."

Chisato nodded. It seemed like a dream come true... to be with her old friends again... to get her old job back... Her only concern was that Claude and her friends on Expel would miss her, but surely, with all this fabulous technology, it would be possible for her to contact Expel on her days off.

"I will fetch a copy of the contract from my office." said Marietta, "Mr. Orvue, please assist Mrs. Adolkristin with our diplomatic efforts. Mrs. Madison, I suggest you wait in the dining room. I believe you will find a friend of yours waiting there."


	9. Chapter 9

Remembering Jan's directions, Chisato went back to the floor with the dining room on it. There were quite a few people eating there. It was a standard work cafeteria: cheap, noisy, with uncomfortable plastic seats. Chisato soon spotted Eruaqs sitting in the corner on his own with a big plate of chips. Buying a coffee and a slice of cake, Chisato went over and sat opposite him. When he saw her, he instinctively leant over his plate and covered it with his arms.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to steal your food."

He raised his eyes and acknowledged her with a nod before staring back down at his food.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the back of his head. Attached to the ports behind his ears was a device that looked like speaker phones.

"Power limiter." he grunted between mouthfuls.

"A what?" the only context she had heard that word was in conjunction with Indalecio and Filia. The thought of facing him without his power limiter brought a chill to her spine.

"Power limiter." he repeated.

"I wanted to thank you for bringing me here, Eruaqs." she told him. He attempted to stuff a handful of chips into his mouth at once, still watching her intently.

"'S okay. Chronicle needs ya. No-one else does the dangerous jobs. They ain't got the guts. You was always my hero, goin' into dungeons an' fightin' monsters an' takin' picters of 'em. If they was a war, you'd make a great war reporter."

"Er... thanks?"

"There'll be lotsa work fer ya. Always somethin' goin' on out there in the galaxy..."

He started telling her all the latest news in between mouthfuls. Apart from the Earth Federation incident, the XINE attack was the biggest story. They were everywhere. Some had even started invading major planets, in groups of hundreds at a time. She sipped her coffee and listened to him, avoiding the occasional spray of food. After a short time, Marietta walked in.

"The contract is printed. Please, if you would like to follow me..."

Chisato stood up and followed the Director out of the door. Eruaqs followed them as well, stuffing a chocolate bar in his pockets for later. They walked down the corridor to the lift before pressing a button for the top floor. Marietta led them down a dimly lit corridor into the command centre. Chisato gasped at the sheer volume of wires and machinery crammed into one room. There was barely enough room for Marietta. She sat back on her chair and plugged herself in again.

"This is the most secure room in the station." said the Director, "We will be able to speak without interruption."

"Isn't this a bit much for a work contract?" said Chisato, nervously watching as she pressed a button and the door slid shut and locked itself.

"Actually, I did not ask you to up here to sign a work contract." she admitted, "I never took you off the staff register, you see. Reporters aren't declared dead until we find the body. Our staff often survive life-threatening situations."

"No, I have a special request for you." she continued, "One that must be kept strictly confidential."

"Already, but I only just..."

"This assignment is perfect for your approach to journalism." she said, "I want you to take Eruaqs to planet Styx."

"Where?"

"Styx is a barren planet. It hasn't been inhabited for millions of years." said Marietta, "And yet, there are signs that it once supported life. Artificial structures have been discovered. The biggest of these structures is an enormous stone gate in the middle of a lifeless wasteland. A year ago, we found Eruaqs lying outside that gate, almost dead."

"Really? Just lying there?"

"Whereas he quickly physically recovered, his mental state is..." Marietta looked at Eruaqs, who had unwrapped his chocolate bar and was in the process of eating it, "Sporadic. It has taken our medics a year of intensive therapy to make him behave as normally as he does now. He remembers nothing of his life before we found him. We believe that he was driven insane."

"By what?"

"We don't know." she admitted, "Although the planet is largely unexplored, Styx is widely believed to trigger abnormal psychological responses in humanoids. Maybe its the utter desolation, the silence and stillness, acting like a sensory deprivation chamber. People have been known to hallucinate, hear voices, have panic attacks. Sometimes the effects are permanent."

"Part of the reason Styx is unexplored is that this phenomenon tends to happen to the pilot of the ship as they are attempting to land." continued Marietta, "As you can imagine, this tends to cause them to crash the ship. Styx is a dangerous planet, Chisato. It got its name because it is a planet of death. People go there and don't return."

A chill ran down Chisato's spine. She could see it somehow: the lonely, silent planet, its civilisation long reduced to dust, its inhabitants to ghosts. A planet as cold and lifeless as the tone of Marietta's voice. She looked around at Eruaqs. He had wiped his hands on the door and was now staring thoughtfully at it.

"And you want me to go there?" she asked, "Why?"

"It is our last resort. I can think of no other way to help Eruaqs recover his memory. Whatever happened to Eruaqs... I believe it is a danger to Tria."

"Wh... what makes you think such a thing? Maybe he just crash landed on the planet..."

"Have you noticed yet that Eruaqs has a power limiter?"

Chisato nodded, "I thought Indalecio destroyed the last one."

"Indeed, the last power limiter on Nede was destroyed by Indalecio Gabriel..." said Marietta, "But this device is not of Nedian origin. It does not bear the markings of any technology from any civilisation in the Tria galaxy."

"Alien technology? But that's impossible. Tria has never been contacted by a race outside the galaxy."

"There's always a first time, Chisato." said the Director, "Furthermore, Eruaqs is clearly from Tria, most likely from a species similar to a Roakian. The limiter was placed there by somebody else, against his will."

"So now aliens are experimenting on us?"

"Maybe. But we cannot such verify such a theory. All we know is that Eruaqs was tampered with by a hostile force from outside the galaxy."

"The power limiter... how do you know what it is? Have you tried taking it off?"

"Eruaqs was not wearing his power limiter on board your ship. That was because it was damaged in such a way that it fell off." she said, unblinking, "Of the four hundred XINE that intercepted the Revorse... one hundred were slain by Eruaqs."

"One HUNDRED?" yelled Chisato, turning to Eruaqs, "Is that true, Eruaqs? Eruaqs?"

However, Eruaqs had already worked out the password for the door and let himself out. The reported turned back to her boss.

"Okay. " she said, "I'll go to Styx. I'll help Eruaqs recover his memories."

"Then you've made up your mind?"

She nodded, "It's the least I can do in return for him leading me here and fighting the XINE to protect me."

She wished she felt as confident as she sounded. Somehow, the planet called to her but it was like a siren song, as deadly as it was alluring, dragging her deep underwater into a dark, icy grave.

"Now, about the pilot." said Marietta, "Only an expert space pilot would be able to negotiate their way through the asteroid belts around Styx. The staff of the Battle Fortress Chronicle are not expert space pilots. I had extreme difficulty finding a pilot willing to travel to Styx. Fortunately, I recently managed to find a skilled pilot who was specifically and rather urgently in need of our services."

She pressed a button on her chair and the display screen on the wall, previously displaying a slideshow of surface images of Styx, changed to show a familiar face.

"Hey, Chisato, wanna be a slave? I found you ten buyers already." said Commander Revorse, lounging on the chair in her conference room and sipping from a strong-looking cup of coffee.

"Will you really take me to Styx?" asked the reporter.

"To get that information published, I'd marry you, sweetie." sighed the merchant.

"You mean, you're doing this for something other than large amounts of money?" Chisato raised an eyebrow.

"It would have been a far lower risk to pay the Commander in Fol." said Marietta, "The information she has requested us to distribute will almost definitely lead to the collapse of negotiations with the Earth Federation."

"We leave tomorrow. Don't keep me waiting." said Commander Revorse before shutting down her communication channel.

"I'd better catch some sleep." said Chisato, yawning.

"The door is open." said Marietta, sounding almost angry about this.

Chisato quickly fell asleep in her comfortable bed, lulled to sleep by the ambient music. That night, however, her dreams were haunted by images of Styx, its rivers of dust and fields of bone, its ghosts and shipwrecks singing an eerie song across desolate plains. At this rate, she thought, I'll crack before I get there.


	10. Chapter 10

He couldn't believe his eyes.

Central Hub was everything he imagined it to be and more. It was enormous. Even before the ship got anywhere near the surface, the glimmering white sphere seemed to swallow them whole, drown them in its rolling seas, gas clouds and floating metal islands. Celeste had told him all about the planet, how it was impossible to terraform despite having a breathable atmosphere and hospitable gravity. There were no solid surfaces. The settlers had simply constructed their own islands on the planet. Because it was so huge, so central and had a brilliant internet signal, it had grown into an intergalactic trading hub. Eventually, it became a central government of sorts. It was also the most well defended planet in the galaxy, the only place the XINE dared not attack. He would be safe here.

The ship docked smoothly in the port, a spotless white dome-shaped structure full of tall signal towers. There were ships of every kind here: huge passenger ships, merchant vessels loaded with goods, heavily armed warships defending the port from the XINE, customised ships that showed off the wealth of their owners - then there was Celeste's ship. Even the porters and service droids kept away from Celeste's ship. The security system would disintegrate anyone who came within twenty yards of it.

"Impressed?" Gabrie Celeste smiled. She spotted him gawping. "The space port alone is the size of the Flying Battery!"

"How in Tria's name are we going to find our way around such a huge planet?"

"Where we're going is a landmark. Everyone will know where it is." she assured him, "Just follow me and don't wander off."

Taking the lead, she walked along a raised platform. Her braided hair flowed down her back in an almost seductive manner. Motoi saw a few workers in the port looking at her, although they were too terrified to whistle at her. It hadn't really occurred to him, at ten years old, that he was travelling with a beautiful woman. He idly wondered if she had any younger sisters and whether he had the guts to ask her.

The minute he stepped outside the station, he was plunged into a warren of broad, long streets, buildings so tall that he couldn't see the roof, shops that took up ten buildings and advertised goods that would take him ten years to save up enough money to buy, hovercars speeding back and forth, drones cleaning the streets and sweeping up rubbish so that everything was the same shade of almost clinical white. A street vendor hawked the Nede Chronicle. A wall screen showed the time, temperature and latest news on fifty different planets. He looked up and saw, in the green sky, ships flying overhead. It was all so big and overwhelming... he suddenly felt scared...

"Are you okay?" Celeste asked, "If you start panicking, tell me. People sometimes get agoraphobic on the Hub. Watch out for pickpockets and don't buy anything."

Motoi thanked her. She really did look out for him. He had almost forgiven her for forcing him to leave his home. There was so much music here... so many people, so bright, so much light and life and information...

Gabrie Celeste pointed to a huge white building in front of them. It looked like a cathedral except for the holographic signs all over it. As the two approached it, it beeped and a door opened. A guard at the reception ushered them in, not hiding the laser sword and gauss pistol at his belt. Despite his heavily armed vigilance, he did not try and stop Gabrie Celeste from entering.

"Welcome to the Interplanetary Government Building." she whispered. He gasped. The silence had an almost religiously reverential quality to it. The white walls gleamed so bright they almost blinded him, the walls invisible, the corridors going on forever. He felt as though he could stop breathing altogether. Was there anything here at all, or was it all a mirage?

"Stand on that plate." she ordered.

He stood on a raised circle with a Tria symbol. A tingle ran through his body, making him feel uncomfortable. His vision swam and began to break up. He clawed at the air in slow motion but he only fell, fell through the air, the walls and floor dissolving...

He blacked out. When he came to, he was in a massive circular chamber, lying on the ground. He stood up and looked around. Every inch of the room was made of white marble, intricately engraved with freizes that told stories he didn't know, maybe of a race older than his own. The ceiling was higher than he could see. He walked forwards, entranced by music that sounded like 'Purge Thyself', but performed by a choir of angels. In front of him was a throne of white marble carved with the synbol of Tria. To the right of the throne was Gabrie Celeste, standing to attention with her spear drawn. On the left was a woman who looked a little like his protector but with dark purple hair, jet black armour, two wickedly curved blades and a cruel expression on her face. There were other women here too, all with the look of warriors, all with different armour and weapons, some floating casually in mid-air. And on the throne...

He bent to one knee and knelt at her feet.  
-----------------------------------------

"No need for such things, Motoi the Bard." her voice was surprisingly serene for such a commanding presence. He felt total reassurance wash through him. He was protected here. All was well.

"Are you... Tria?" he gasped. She laughed gently and shook her head.

"Though I represent her in the mortal realm, I am not the Goddess. I am Lenneth the Third, Arbiter of Tria and High Valkyrie."

"Is this real?" he asked, gazing around him, "You're really... Valkyrie? Tria's messengers?"

"Indeed. We oversee all of Tria's galaxy."

"What do you guys want with me? I'm just a kid."

"No, child, you are the Bard."

He laughed, "Funny way of putting it."

"Motoi, what happens when you play your music?"

"I'm not telling you about it!" he yelled, clutching his MP3 player. It wasn't something he liked to remember...

"Do you want to show me, then?"

"You'll regret it!"

"Why?"

"It kills people!"

"I know what that power is, Motoi. It can be used for all sorts of things. We're going to put it to good use now. You must trust me and do exactly as I tell you."

"What are you going to do?"

"We're going to find the girl that Gabrie Celeste was looking for." she said, glaring at his protector, "And so incompetently managed to lose."

"I told you, that girl had to have been using a Magnitude 10!" complained Gabrie Celeste, pouting. The black-haired one smirked at her.

"The little girl on Roak?" asked the boy.

"Please, she's very important to me." she said, "She's my daughter."

"A Valkyrie's daughter? Is she a Valkyrie too?" Motoi gasped.

"You're not born a Valkyrie, child, you need to train in battle for hundreds of years."

"I d... don't think I should use my powers on a girl. Especially a Valkyrie's daughter." he said, "What if it goes out of control? What if..."

"I shall help you keep it under control." she assured him, "Trust me, I am powerful enough. I have seen thousands of years of battle."

Motoi stared at his feet. The music in the background sang to him in his blood. It felt wrong to suppress it... it felt even wronger to disobey these powerful, commanding women. It was wrong not to help a mother find her daughter. But it was also wrong to use his powers...

"Think about it." she said, "For now, I'll find you somewhere to rest. You look exhausted. Follow me."

Lenneth held out her hand. He grabbed it and she led him to what he thought was a wall, but he now saw the faint shimmering outline of a door. The portal rippled as she stepped through it and he followed her. The other Valkyries watched him like cats staring at a stray.

"So, the Flying Battery is down." said a Valkyrie in green, the Minister of Defence.

Gabrie Celeste nodded. "But the Bard survived. The Flying Battery can be rebuilt. We can control the ambient music from some other satellite."

"How many XINE did you say attacked?"

"Around one hundred and fifty."

"A war band." said the Valkyrie. Gabrie Celeste nodded somberly, "The total figures for XINE attacks this week alone are heading into the thousands. No satellite we can build will be safe, dear sister. Even the Central Hub will no longer be safe soon."

"Then what can we do?"

"The music attracts the XINE." said a Valkyrie in blue, the Communications Minister, "Without the correct ambient music, humanoids, even Valkyries, quickly go insane. We can't switch it off."

"Then we use the music as a weapon."

Everyone looked over at the Iselia Queen, Gabrie Celeste's dark twin sister. She was casually playing with her blades. It was the Iselia who found out the effects of background silence by experimenting on political prisoners.

"Put the boy in a space station in the middle of nowhere, round the XINE up and play the Game Over tune."

"That would kill our Bard!" snapped Gabrie Celeste.

"Better that than condemn millions to death at the hands of the XINE!"

"I do know a place where the child might be safe." said the Valkyrie in blue, opening up a holo-window with a flick of her hand. The screen showed a map of the galaxy with a pointer to a small wheel-shaped satellite in the middle of what used to be Nedian territory before the civilisation destroyed itself.

"You can't be serious." said the Valkyrie in green, "They're anti-government dissidents!"

"They're news reporters, Tir."

"They hacked into and stole a military cargo ship."

"You know the story isn't as simple as that, sister." she replied, sighing, "More importantly, the Battle Fortress Chronicle staved off a three hundred strong XINE attack. I believe we could come to an arrangement just this once. After all, we're only asking that they protect an innocent child..."

"A dangerous weapon!" snapped the Iselia Queen, "We can't let it get into their hands!"

"Sister... Motoi is not a weapon." said Gabrie Celeste, "I'm not going to hand a child over to you, especially not one of ours. I was given the task of protecting all our children. It's my fault that Gwesty is lost, and..."

"DEAR SISTER, Motoi is MY CHILD!" hissed the Iselia, "Are you forbidding me from deciding the fate of my own child?"

"The child must not be put in danger. By anyone." said Gabrie Celeste, turning to the Valkyrie in blue, "Gunnhild, I beg your permission to escort the child to the Battle Fortress Chronicle."

"Sister..."

"I'm the weakest of the Valkyrie. I'll be no use in the coming war." said Gabrie Celeste, "I don't think the Chronicle have any reason to attack me, but if they do, and I die... I'm the least important Valkyrie."

"Don't do anything reckless, sister." ordered Gunnhild, "For the child's sake, if you value your own life so little."

"You all care too much about the boy-child." sneered Iselia.

"I thought you said you were his mother." said Gabrie Celeste. Her twin gave her a sideways look and teleported out of the room. The others visibly relaxed, but not much. They were, after all, preparing for war.  
----------------------------------------


	11. Chapter 11

  
"Do you know the song 'New World'?" asked Freya.

Motoi nodded. He sat on a prayer mat opposite the Valkyrie. It was embroidered with the Tria emblem and looked faded and old.

"I want you to play that song on your MP3 player. I want you to concentrate on it. Think only of the song. I'll help you."

He switched on his MP3 player and flicked to the song, then turned the volume up to full. He closed his eyes. Despite the brightness of walls, the darkness he was plunged into was total. The angelically serene music conjured up images of stars in the vastness of space, endless, mysterious, a heavenly sonata. He was drifting towards the stars, at one with the galaxy and its song, its story. Without words he understood. Without words he asked Tria and Tria answered. His mind buzzed with white noise as his consciousness left the confines of his body like a lucid dream. He suddenly felt afraid. It was so vast and impersonal and he was so small and alone. Lenneth's hand on his shoulder reassured him. He realised he could hear her singing the words, words ancient and alien, each syllable surging with power, the galaxy's secret knowledge. What they were doing... it was like hacking the galaxy...

Suddenly, he felt solid ground beneath him, wet, cold stone. He blinked. He was no longer floating in space but he wasn't in the room. This was a small corridor of blue stone with torches guttering on the walls. Four or five wooden doors led from it. The music was still playing but in the background, not just from his MP3 player. He felt odd, as though there was something missing.

"This is another time and place." explained Lenneth. He jumped and turned around. Just as with Gabrie Celeste, she could not be detected unless she wanted to be. "Everything else is already gone. Welcome to the Prophecy."

Motoi looked around, confused.  
"Is the girl here?"

"Yes, somewhere. But I don't know which door she is behind. We must take each one in turn."

Motoi nodded. He pushed the first door and it swung open without resistance. Inside was another small room with desks and tables. It was completely ordinary-looking. Men and women in black suits sat at the tables, talking animatedly amongst themselves and working on the computers. Motoi gasped; they looked just like him. They were from his home planet!

"Hey!" he walked up to one and tapped them on the shoulder. He didn't even look around but carried on his conversation with the woman sat next to him. Motoi pulled on his arm.

"They can't see or hear you." Lenneth pulled him back, "Those people are the Programmers."

"Like the Eternal Sphere, you mean? Hey, my dad worked on that! Is that my dad?"

She shook her head, "Its best not to interrupt them. Let's try the next door."

The next door was empty. The one after that had seven stars on the wall and a trapdoor in the floor. Lenneth warned him not to go down it unless he felt like a painful death. The fourth door was covered in murals similar to the ones in the government building, and...

A girl in a simple white dress sat huddled in the corner, hugging her knees. A couple of years younger than Motoi, her hair was long, flaxen and braided like Gabrie Celeste's. Next to her stood a large, white fluffy creature that chirruped. It had long white floppy ears and comically oversized feet. Motoi walked up to her. She didn't look up but he could tell she had been crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm lost." she sniffled.

"Can't you just go back the way you came? How did you get here?"

"I don't know." she said, "And there isn't a way out. There's just these doors and these little rooms and that trapdoor I can't get open."

"Don't go down the trapdoor." Lenneth said almost automatically, "Gwesty, what you're experiencing is called a Prophecy of the Tenth Magnitude. Its a very, very powerful thing and you need someone to help you control it."

Gwesty looked up at her, her eyes wide and blue, and gave her a suspicious glare.  
"You've got wings! You look just like the bad lady who tried to take me away and then cast a spell on me!"

"Gabrie Celeste didn't mean to scare you." said Lenneth, making her voice as soothing as possible, "She's not good at talking to people but she's very good at protecting them. She was trying to protect you, Gwesty."

"What from?"

"There's a lot you need to know. I would sit down. This may take a while." Lenneth crossed her legs and floated in midair. Motoi shrugged and sat down beside Gwesty. The Bunny chirruped and bounced up to him. It sniffed him. Intrigued, he extended a hand and touched one of its ears. It licked his face. Gwestia giggled.

"The Prophecy - the place you are in now - is an eternal message from Tria. It's here to tell you all the important things that Tria thinks that people need to know. Your power, Gwesty, is to read the Prophecy. You go here whenever you need help or advice, or you're threatened. Its like you're asking Tria herself for help. Motoi here..." she pointed to the boy, "Is a Bard. His power is that when he plays music, whatever the music is about becomes real. So, if we were in battle and he played a victory fanfare, we would win the battle."

And if I play a funeral march, he thought to himself, bowing his head, everyone around me dies.

Lenneth acknowledged Motoi's reaction with a frown of concern.

"Your powers are very important, Motoi." she said, "And not just for girl-finding. Why do you think your job was to play that music in the Flying Battery?"

"I was being kept away from the world." he said, "It was because I killed those people. It's like a prison." 

Her eyes grew sad, "Is that what you thought? That you were in exile? No, Motoi, the Flying Battery is a special space station that can broadcast your music to the entire galaxy. People need background music to live. Like food, water and air... there's always been background music. There's always been a Bard."

"What are my powers for?" asked Gwesty.

"Well, to answer that question, you need to know why you have your powers." said Lenneth, "Its because your mother was a Valkyrie, like me or Gabrie Celeste."

"I haven't got a mother!" snapped Gwesty, clinging to her Bunny. It chirruped and nibbled at her hair.

"Everyone has a mother, Gwesty." said Lenneth, "Didn't you learn in school about how babies are made?"

"Not me. I've just got a father. The Innkeeper's my dad."

"Is that what he told you?" asked Lenneth, her smile sharpening slightly like a blade being prepared for battle, "I'm going to dunk him in a horse trough."

Motoi laughed. Gwesty turned around and slapped him. Startled, the Bunny jumped away to the far side of the room. Gwesty ran after it. Lenneth sighed.

"Gwesty." she called, "I'm your mother."

The expression on the child's face grew from one of incensed anger to one of outrage.

"I do NOT have WINGS!" she screwed up her face as though she was going to burst into tears.

"NO, the wings come later, once you become a fully grown Valkyrie." explained Lenneth, "And you will become a Valkyrie, Gwesty. You're the most talented fledgeling I've ever met."

"I don't want wings when I grow up either!" she bawled, "I just want to go back home. I want to see my dad and I want to see the Bunnies and I don't want any scary ladies with wings following me. Or stupid boys."

Lenneth sighed. How did you tell an eight-year-old child that if they remained on their home planet, it would be overrun by an army of XINE?

"Do you even know how to go back home?" Motoi asked. Gwesty shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes again.

"Well, we do. Don't we, Lenneth?" he gave her a look that said he wasn't quite convinced himself.

"Of course I do." said the Valkyrie.

"So, we do and you don't. That means you'll have to come with us, won't you?"

She screamed and lunged at him, knocking him to the floor, before punching him repeatedly. For a girl two years younger than him, she was as strong as a lioness. He couldn't even lift his arms to punch her back. Lenneth laughed. What a Valkyrie she'll make.

Motoi couldn't really think at all. His brain had frozen like a jolted CD. Up close, this girl was beautiful.


	12. Chapter 12

Both children were sleeping peacefully, Motoi humming New World under his breath, Gwesty snoring. Gabrie switched off the lights and walked into the conference room. Nobody was there. Only the beeps of the automated security systems broke the silence and they were looking for intruders and the Iselia Queen, not her. The computers had no screens, no towers - only holo-terminals that could be summoned with a sweep of her hand. The interface was a tiny chip implanted into her palm. Everyone's already left for the battlefield, thought Gabrie. She summoned a terminal with a microphone and began speaking.

"I'm moving out." she told the log, "Both the children are here. I'm taking them to safety as per my orders. Call me when you pick up this message."

She closed the terminal and opened a cam-holo to the space port. One ship was left, a tiny scout ship. She didn't like flying in a ship with barely any weapons or armour but, on the other hand, it meant that the Chronicle were less likely to misinterpret her approach as an attack and shoot her on sight. Bringing up another terminal, she keyed in the security code for the bay and scheduled a ship to take off. She went back to the room where the children were sleeping. Gabrie couldn't sleep on the standard issue bunks. They were about as comfortable as badly oiled torture racks. They must be exhausted from their mental ordeal, she thought. Even fully developed Valkyries had trouble accessing a Tenth Magnitude Prophecy. Was she looking at the next Freya? As for the boy... he didn't look that miraculous but bards were rare and necessary to the galaxy's existence. These kids had to be kept alive at all costs.

She easily carried both children under her arms without waking either. The ship door opened for her automatically. She deposited the children in a random cabin in the living quarters and headed to the bridge. With a few commands, the doors were locked and ship took off. She watched the white blocks of the government buildings disappear, then the argent globe of Central Hub shrink from view. She set a course for former Nedian airspace.

A rusty tang in the air alerted her to the presence of loose antimatter. A leakage in one of the weapons? An antimatter explosion could do a lot of damage to the ship. Opening a scan and repair program, she left the bridge and walked down the corridor into the lift that would take her to the engineering deck.

She barely registered the presence of the other before she jumped back, weapon drawn. A flash of dark purple sliced past her. Even with her semidivine reflexes, pain shot through her as the two blades cut across her back, drawing blood. The wound would be data damaged, she knew, and would take a cellular reconstruction program to heal. Adrenaline surged through her veins, causing her to lick her lips out of the sheer thrill of battle, an instinct instilled in her through thousands of years of training as well as Tria's legacy. Her othersight sensed a spell being cast. She ducked down and ran out into the corridor. Waves of dark energy flared across the ship, choking her with the stench of ozone, the metal cracking and buckling under the magnetic forces. The computers beeped and ran auto-repair programs. An alarm sounded but she shut it off, not wanting to wake the children. This was her battle. Focussing her will, she teleported behind her assailant, who immediately whirled around to face her. Gabrie Celeste saw a pair of flashing red eyes stalking her - a predator's eyes.

"Iselia." she recognised her dark twin. She crouched into a fighting stance, her black hair flowing down her shoulders, a pair of knives posed to throw. Gabrie Celeste calmly went into the crane stance, her spear brandished in one hand. The look in her sister's eyes was as cold and cruel as ever.

"Dear sister!" she mocked. "Did you arrange this whole ambush from the beginning? You betrayed Tria's Council. The punishment for this crime is execution!"

"What would you know of betrayal?" Iselia glared at her, "You, who would take Lenneth's place! Even though you're the weaker of us, you would become High Valkyrie with your little games! First you use these children to gain Lenneth's favour, then you worm your way off the battlefield. Did you hope that we would all die and leave you as sole heir to Lenneth's throne?"

"Iselia, my mission is every part as vital to the defense of the galaxy as those in the front lines!" said Gabrie.

"Then why volunteer for it? Why not let a more capable Valkyrie deal with the children?"

"Like you, you mean? You'd probably throw them out of the airlock!"

"Whereas you will just use them as political tools and discard them when they become unnecessary!" said Iselia, "You admit yourself that you're leaving them in the hands of known terrorists! Don't give me that crap about them being news reporters!"

"Say what you will, I won't allow you to sabotage the mission given to me by Tria's heralds." Gabrie Celeste brandished her spear.

"And how will you stop me, dear sister?" Iselia mocked her, twirling her blades expertly, "Your power is nothing compared to mine. Ever since we were born, we've been rivals, you and I, light and shadow. I've always been the strongest one. It was only your underhand court maneuvers that led to me being imprisoned for war crimes!"

"That, and you tortured two hundred prisoners of war to death." Gabrie reminded her.

"You're no innocent either. If I remember rightly, you control a mafia network on Expel." her eyes flashed red as she walked slowly up to her sister, "You've been hiding from me for thousands of years, holing yourself up in a mountain in Expel. Now there's no escape. During my imprisonment in the Silver Trumpet, I had a vision, sister. I saw the dark side of Tria rising again. The cold death of outer space... the hidden, creeping darkness... the seal on the gates of darkness is broken, sister, and they shall soon open! It is time for Tria's true potential to be unlocked. We shall be even greater than Freya herself! THAT is Tria's will, sister! You shall not stand in the way of my crusade!"

Iselia's blades whirled but Gabrie Celeste struck first. Teleporting forwards, she thrust with her spear, its neutron blade flashing a brilliant white. Like a dancer, Iselia dodged every lightning thrust with casual grace, retorting with her daggers that arced towards her enemy and returned to her hand. Gabrie had the range and the power but Iselia was faster. What was more, her magic was far stronger. Gabrie knew that she had to interrupt that magic at all costs. The made her attacks furious, relentless, her Tria-blessed endurance never failing. Iselia ducked and wove, forcing Gabrie to teleport after her from room to room, circling the ship as she struck again and again, her blade dancing like a butterfly.

Then, suddenly, a blade breached Gabrie's defences, slicing her across the chest. Stung by the blow, Gabrie's thrust faltered by a fraction of a degree, allowing Iselia to jump backwards into a ventilation shaft. Confused, Gabrie tried to jab into the tunnel. She was thrown back by three spheres of crackling energy that slammed into her. The pain was intense. Magic... Gabrie needed to interrupt the magic or she was dead... The air was thick with dark arcane energy as the spheres dissolved into a dark mist. Gabrie could feel space distorting around her, her movements becoming slower. It was hard to breathe. Two blades flew at her again and sliced her across the face, almost embedding themselves in her throat. She teleported back. Her dark twin advanced, forcing her further into retreat. She warped through the wall into the next room, looking desperately around for some kind of weapon. All the weapons on the ship were gone, as were the medikits. Iselia had been very thorough.

Iselia did not follow her. Gabrie Celeste couldn't even hear her. Could she cloak herself now? Gabrie teleported into the corridor and opened a mapping terminal. Her question was immediately answered when the alarm sounded and the engine room flashed red.

Gabrie ran. She headed to the children's room and threw the door open. They were gone. Opening up another terminal, she sent out a command to track all life forms on board the ship. Apart from herself, there was only Iselia, running from the engine room to the escape shuttle bay. She asked the computer to seal the bay doors. A message came back reporting that the shuttle had already been launched. Gabrie smiled. A silent prayer to Tria passed her lips. Then she teleported behind the Iselia Queen and screamed a battle cry.


	13. Chapter 13

Marietta sat in the control room and watched the Revorse disappear from view.

Revorse. It had been a long time - centuries - since she had last heard that name. These last few days she had spent analysing the Commander's story - and the increasingly clear evidence backing it up. It was becoming too apparent to ignore that the story had serious implications for the future of the entire intergalactic political scene. Only one thing kept her from releasing the news right now and overthrowing the Earth Federation in one blow - the threat of encroaching war with the XINE. Not only was it a much bigger and more impressive story, it would also weaken the resolve of the galaxy as a whole to throw the internal structure into chaos in the midddle of a war. Marietta was genuinely worried about the increased number of XINE attacks - was it really an invasion fleet? If so, were civilians being evacuated properly? If not, what justification did the government have for spending public money on a pointless war, sending thousands of people to their deaths? No species in the entire Tria gaalxy could communicate with the totally alien minds of the XINE... how could we possible understand their motives? Shouldn't we be trying to decipher their language, opening up peace talks?

The communication panel bleeped. She opened it up at her end. Jan Orvue's face appeared on the screen.

"Director, the cameras have picked up an incoming vessel!"

"Why didn't the automatic defense systems warn me about this?" she demanded irritably. It was a bad time for the defense systems to be on the blink.

"Ma'am, it hasn't registered as a threat. It appears to be an escape pod."

"Intercept it." she ordered.

Over the cameras, she watched as one of her ships approached the object and began to tow it with a tractor beam back to the fortress. It was captured without incident. Orvue hailed her a moment later.

"Director, it IS an escape pod! It contains two children!"

"Condition?"

"They're in full health. They're in the rest room. Director, I think you ought to listen to their story, they've been saying some very odd things..."

"XINE attacks?"

He shook his head.

"See to their needs and bring them to the control room."

After a short wait, the door opened at her command and Jan walked in, followed by two children, one female and clearly from central Tria, one male. They were wide-eyed, oviously still terrified. The girl wore a white shift and leather sandals, the boy a smart black suit that made him look like a miniature businessman. He was covered in wearable cybernetics from the latest line, all audio-visual enhancers, holo-visualisers and a soft-wired MP3 player.

"This is Gwestia and Motoi." Jan introduced them, "This is Mrs. La Verne. She wants to know everything that happened to you."

Motoi hid behind Gwestia, who glared at her in open suspicion. Marietta didn't know how to reassure people, so she didn't bother.

"Was your ship attacked?" she asked.

Motoi shook his head, "The engine stopped working. It exploded."

"A malfunction?"

"I don't know."

"We were asleep." said Gwestia, "The alarm woke me up. I woke Motoi up and we ran."

"Were there any other survivors?"

Gwestia shook her head vehemently.

"Are you sure? Just you?" Marietta could tell by the way her heart rate increased that she was lying, "Who was on your ship anyway, and where was it headed?"

"Its okay to tell her, Gwesty." said Jan, "Marietta knows all about her."

Gwesty looked up at the android sheepishly.  
"A lady in white." she said, "With creepy wings."

"Gabrie Celeste." muttered Motoi, "The Valkyrie."

Marietta's expression did not change but her entire processor focussed on running the task of keeping her attention on the boy.

"What were you doing in a spaceship with a Valkyrie near our airspace?"

"If I tell you, can I play Eternal Sphere?" asked Motoi.

"Motoi, I think you'd better tell us the whole story." said Jan, "We can't protect you unless we know what's going on."

"Protect me? Gabrie Celeste said she would protect me as well! She lied!" snapped Motoi, "I've never even met you guys before! How do I know I can trust you?"

"Government ships don't just explode, Motoi." said Marietta, "They're the best ships in the galaxy and if there really was a valkyrie on board, she'd be virtually a goddess. Do you think she wouldn't know how to fix a faulty engine? Your ship was sabotaged."

"S... sabotaged? Someone's trying to kill me?"

"I told you that lady was bad!" screamed Gwesty. Motoi glared at her.

"Don't be silly! It wasn't Gabrie Celeste! She protected me!"

"She lied to you about protecting you! How do you know she wasn't trying to kill you all that time?"

"Motoi, do you want to see something?" asked Jan suddenly.

"What?"

"Come downstairs with me and I'll show it you."

"What is it?"

"The Chronicle publishing office."

"REALLY?"

Marietta sighed. She watched the two children follow Jan back out of the door, chattering excitedly and clinging to his arms. She didn't understand children. Why did they take to Jan so much but wouldn't listen to her?

Grudgingly, Motoi began telling the man the whole story: about his powers, about his escape from the Flying Battery soundsystem, about his audience with the Court of Tria, how he rescued Gwesty and about her powers. He reported the whole thing back to Marietta over an Eternal Sphere chat link. They're playing computer games, she thought to herself, sighing. What a waste of our budget. Still, the information was worth it.

She had two Valkyrie children in her hands.

"D... Director, we're in over our heads here. Can we just send them back? Please?"

"I need to speak to Motoi. Alone."

"Director, he's an intergalactic systems operator!"

"I know." she sighed, "I'm not going to do anything to him, I just want to talk to him about matters that don't concern other members of staff."

Jan relented. Five minutes later, Motoi was delivered back to the Command Centre. He faced Marietta, a look of absolute terror on his already white face.

"Don't worry, Motoi. I'm just an android." she said, "You're from a highly developed planet, you know what an android is. Now, I need to ask you an important question. Do you have records from the Flying Battery?"

"Of course!" he held up his MP3 player, "Daddy said always to back up your files."

"Smart advice." she replied, "I want to look through them."

"Its just songs..." he gingerly held out his MP3 player.

"I believe there is data stored in the form of a music file that... isn't a music file." she explained, ignoring his confused look as she took the tiny device and put the headphones in her ears, "When I am finished, you may play the music on our radio station. This will fulfil your your original purpose."

"Cool! Is it a pirate radio station?"

"Er..."

"Yarrrr!" yelled Motoi in a hearty pirate voice before running out of the room. Marietta sighed and uploaded all the songs into her memory banks. Most of it was just ambient music. We really do need to broadcast this, she thought. Controlling a galactic life support system would give us a major playing card when Central Tria next tries to take us off the air. She analysed the source codes of the fiels but found nothing out of the ordinary. Then, after an hour of searching, she found something. It was in the trash can - a record of a deleted file. The file had been burned onto a CD before it was deleted. It was a song with embedded lyrics. Not unusual, except that galactic ambient music had no words. This song was no exception. It was 'Rust Colour'. This particular version was performed by a live guitarist and singer called Lionel Deguares of Elicoor 3.

Marietta unplugged herself and left the control room. A reporter spotted her descending in the elevator; Genevieve.

"I am leaving the station." she explained. Genevieve looked surprised; Marietta rarely even left her room.

"Director, shall I watch the systems? I know they're on automatic, but..."

"They can't be trusted to maintain the entire station for any length of time." finished Marietta, "No. You will broadcast the Revorse tapes on all channels in exactly three days. Then you will put the cloaking field on and you will all abandon the station."

"Director!"

"Don't worry, I'll return and activate it again when the Earth Federation gives up trying to find us." said Marietta, "Nothing can stop the truth."  
--------------------------------


	14. Chapter 14

"... and that's how Jie Revorse was framed!" said Commander Revorse, thumping her hand on the table, "The Fargettians never dropped that biological virus - it was Earth, in a captured Fargettian ship! The Earth Federation are warmongers, terrorists and liars! They should not be allowed a say in the government of the Tria galaxy!"

Chisato yawned and watched Lola pounce on the camera strap she swung rhythmically. As she dragged it along the table, the kitten chased it. The story had been fascinating at first but after the twentieth retelling, it had begun to lose its impact. Eruaqs had already fallen asleep in his food and was snoring loudly. Four empty bowls were stacked beside him. He really does eat like a pig, thought Chisato. He had completely forgotten his ordeal with the XINE. Chisato wondered if he even remembered where he was going. Was he really as insane as Marietta had told her? She gave the power limiter behind his ears a nervous glnce. Styx... they were going to Styx... This everyday life... eating, sleeping, bickering and playing with the kitten... it didn't feel like they were really going to the most mysterious and dangerous planet in the galaxy. Commander Revorse had finished her rant and was now leaving the room, presumably returning to the bridge. Chisato left Eruaqs to his nap and wandered to the observation window. The stars were relaxing to watch and this was the only place she could think, try and piece together the tangled mess she ahd gotten herself into. So much had happened at once. She grew to appreciate the slow days when the only things she had to worry about were a kitten chewing a wire and Eruaqs being space sick.

It was easiet to think of it as just another day at work. She took a long work break but now she was back at her office and she was chasing up another story. It was a very dangerous story but then they all were. It was no worse than chasing Indalecio up Fienal Tower. She was Chisato Madison. The intrepid reporter. Monster-infested ancient ruins, secret military bases, unexplored planets... she went everywhere.

Where was Ashton now? Did Celine ever defeat the Iselia Queen? Is Leon old enough to legally be studying at that academy yet? Homesickness stabbed her in the stomach. She thought she saw the blue planet Expel twinkling in the distance. They would be worrying about her, too. Where had that crazy reporter gone now?

"Why did you...?"

Chisato whirled around, bringing her fists up into a ju-jitsu stance. It was only Eruaqs, standing in the doorway like a statue, his eyes staring as though he had seen a ghost, his expression that of one possessed.

"Tria, why did you...?"

She sighed. He was probably sleepwalking. He slept anywhere but in his bed. He was worse than the kitten.

"Tria... no, please..."

Chisato crept up to him. She didn't want to disturb a sleepwalker, but at the same time, she was worried about him. His cries were pleading, almost tortured. He grasped with a hand at something that didn't exist.

"Tria! No! Why? TRIAAAAAAAAAA!"

He began screaming the name of the Goddess over and over again. Chisato ran out of the room and back to the living quarters, turning the music up to full volume to block out the inhuman screaming. The screaming of one utterly lost and alone in the Universe.  
--------------------------

The ship docked in a small clearing.

Marietta left the cloaking device on. Elicoor 3 was an underdeveloped planet and, while she didn't give a damn about the UP3 act, she knew from experience that, were her ship to be discovered, it would probably have the titanium plating nicked and melted down into swords and armour. The android travelled light, with only a laptop, camera and a pair of laser pistols. Marietta didn't need to eat or sleep. Her batteries oly ran out every two years.

She stepped out of the clearing and into a moorland full of fiery red heather, prickly bushes and small rocky outcrops. A wiry, hardy-looking hare grazed underneath a hill, running away faster than her sensors could follow when it saw her. She soon discovered larger creatures - wolves, huge wooly animals, spiny creatures with spiked tails and giant birds. She rooted through her database to find out which ones were harmless and which she should avoid.

Climbing up the hill gave her a good vantage point. She located and examined the settlement below her. It looked big enough to be a town. Its walls were made of granite quarried from the soaring mountains she could see in the distance. The ramparts were high, to keep out vicious animals. The tall wooden gates were open, however, and there was a steady stream of traffic in and out. High above the town, the sun set into a magenta pool.

Keeping one eye on a scrawny wyvern trying to sneak up on her, she climbed down the hill. The dew made it slippery and, though she was rust proof, she hadn't experienced weather conditions for twenty years. The mud and wet all down her legs was beginning to irritate her. She stopped near a small stream to wash herself clean and dry her legs on the tall reeds that grew by the river bank. Now she was almost at the gates, she could see the people clearly. Most of them were merchants, their brightly painted caravans and stalls loaded with goods of all kinds - fruit, spices, silk, pots, armour and weapons. There were soldiers everywhere - bands of eight at a time, in black plate armour. There were tradesmen of all kinds as well, such as craftsmen, blacksmiths, engineers and cooks. Another group of people were prevalent, in black silk robes - were they priests, scholars or some kind of heraldic mages? Her attention was caught by an oversized rabbit walking on its hind legs. It wore green overalls and appeared to be successfully selling something from a tray around its neck. Her curiosity piqued, she walked through the gate, attempting to intercept it.

"Welcome to Peterny." said one of the guards at the gate, "State your business."

"Reporter." she said, showing him her camera.

"Ah, for the Guild Review?"

She nodded. She had never heard of the Guild Review, but she guessed this man hadn't read the Chronicle. He smiled and waved her in, alllowing her to continue her search for the rabbit.

Peterny was clearly a trading capital. She hadn't even reached the town square before she became lost in a sea of people yelling, bartering at the tops of their voices, hawking their wares. Bright colours and rich smells assailed her sensory receptors, forcing her to mute the settings. Three people tried to pick her pocket but were disappointed to find that they were painted on. Pushing past anyone in her way - it seemed to be what everyone else was doing - she made her way down the street until she reached a large wooden building that seened particularly popular. It had large wooden notice boards and a counter through which people passed various goods to an official-looking man in a large hat.

It was there that she saw her target.

A young man with pale skin, straight black hair that stuck to his attractive but shy face and ended in white fletching, he wore a black tunic with a dragon embroidered on it in white thread. He was carrying a large crate full of swords. Ignoring the queue she was supposed to be standing in, she walked up behind him.

"Lionel Deguares."

He glanced up at her with the most dejected expression she had ever seen on the face of a human who was not trying to jump off a bridge.

"Uh... hi..." he began, "I... uh... gotta get this stuff on the auction. I'm busy. yeah, busy."

"So this is an auction." said Marietta. It was certanly different to eBay.

"Uh, yeah... this is the world famous Peterny Grand Trading Auction." he gave her an odd look before placing his crate on the counter. He then produced some papers that were stamped by the man in the hat, who rang a bell.

"I'm not from here. I travelled a long way." she admitted. "Are you from this town?"

"Me? I'm from... Airyglyph..." he sighed, put his hands in his pockets and stared up at the sky with an even more suicidal expression. Then he blinked and looked at her,.

"Sorry, lady, I'm being kinda rude. You knew my name... you must've come to hear me play. There's still a few hours before I'm on. How 'bout you and I go for a drink?"


	15. Chapter 15

As darkness fell on the streets of Peterny, the shops began to close, the crowds receded and guards with lanterns began their night shift. Marietta la Verne sat outside on the balcony of the Black Cat Inn, watching the flickering torches. She did not drink; there was little point, as all it would do to her was corrode her circuits. A few of the other patrons were starting to give her odd looks. It was difficult being an android - especially one of the most advanced androids in the galaxy - on an underdeveloped planet. The last time she went to Earth, somebody tried to steal her. She was relieved when Mr. Deguares reappeared. He ahd cleaned himself up a little and wore some kind of perfume, although the expression on his face still made him look like a rat that had deliberately tried to drown itself. Around his shoulders was strapped a large black guitar. He bought a pint of ale and sat at her table.

"Hey, man, you're early. That's cool." he commented.

"Did your auctioneering go well?" she asked. He grinned slightly manically inr eply and retrieved a wad of notes from his pockets, "Weapons seem like an odd thing for a musician to sell."

"Well, you know, a few things I had lying around... in the basement..." he shook his head, "Did you really come to see me play? I don't recognise you. I try and get to know my biggest fans personally. Which performance were you at?"

"I was not at a concert. I heard about you from a Mr. Motoi. A small child. Do you remember him?"

"The kid with the weird machine? Sure, sure, I remember him. Funny kid, but he really appreciated my music. Not many people understand me."

"What sort of music do you play, Mr. Deguares?"

"Hey, call me Lionel." he insisted, "As for my music... I'm a screenie."

"A what?"

"An overite. A dirgehead." he said, "You know what I mean? I play Game Over tunes."

Marietta put her head on her chin thoughtfully. She knew something about galactic ambient soundsystems - the kind supervised by Motoi. You should never play a Game Over tune over one. Everyone who hears it will die. No wonder he had the song recorded on a distant planet and all copies erased. Marietta hadn't really picked up on the fact that there were no Game Over tunes and very few sad songs in Motoi's collection. Had he given all the Game Over tunes to this boy from Airyglyph to sing?

"The show's about to start." he said, taking his guitar into his hands.

"May I request a song?" she asked.

"Sure thing, lady. Anything for a pretty girl like you."

Marietta made her request, then watched the stage, ready for the show to start. The inn was becoming more crowded now. She recognised most of them as the pale-skinned, dark-haired people of Airyglyph. Two black-armoured soldiers sat at the bar, tlking in low voices and pointing to the stage. After a few mintues, the crowd fell silent, the lights dimmed and a spotlight flickered on in the middle of the stage. Through a back door appeared Lionel Deguares. He walked up to the microphone and began speaking.

"Hi everyone, I'm Lionel Deguares and this is the Black Cat Inn, Peterny. It was great of you guys to let me perform here tonight, your ale is great value for money. Now, a few of you might remember me as the guy who was banished from Airyglyph for lowering morale. This is the song that was banned, ladies and gentlemen, here, tonight... Theme of Rena!"

He then launched into one of the most soul-crushingly depressing songs she ahd ever heard in her life. It was difficult to hear the words because of the strong Airyglyphian accent he sang in, but it was beautiful in its own way. His finegrs ran expertly over the guitar strings, producing a rusty scrtaching sound that accompanied all his songs. His voice was also pleasant. Soft, sad, it was almost mesmerising. He poured his soul into his songs, as though he was really experiencing the black pit of despair. She recognised 'Theme of Rena', 'Fuyodol', 'Solemnity in Space' and 'Look To The King'.

"And this one goes out to the beautiful lady in the audience. I'm sure you'll all recognise it from my Aquaria tour. Rust Colour."

Oh, can you forgive me, my dear/  
For everything I have done?

What in the world have I done, Madison/  
And what's gonna happen to menow?  
I've been in exile for far too long/  
I really don't think I can go on.

When did I freeze to ice/  
When did my sword turn to rust.

Oh, glory to Airyglyph/  
Is all that I ever hear.

Oh, when did it get to be like this, Madison/  
And what's gonna happen to us?  
Will nobody hear me but you, Madison?  
Will you be the last person I ever hear again?

When did I fade to black?  
Maybe I'm not gonna come back

This earned him a round of applause. Marietta merely stopped and stared at him, her purple eyes looking straight through him, straight through the stage, through the wall, through the world... He responded with a look of utter terror and averted his gaze.

"G... glad you liked it, cutie... and n... now... G... Goldark's theme..."

The stars above will not go out/  
The sun will not grow cold/  
And the rain won't fall on Elicoor/  
'Till the children of Tria are gone, are gone, are gone...

And oh, Tria, Tria, Tria,  
In the name of Tria, I burn, I burn, tria...

"What's that you're singing?"

"Hymn." the first technician grunted, "My mother used to sing it to me."

"Sounds like a funeral march." the second mechanic grunted, "Help me with this sodding crate."

"Oof, its heavy. What's in it? An elephant?"

"Android."

"You're joking!"

"'Ere, listen to me..." lowring the crate into the ship's cargo bay with the winch, he turned around and whispered into his colleague's ear, "It's THAT android. You know, the one on the news."

"Oh shit!" swore the mechanic, "Bob, we've got to get out of here! That thing'll kill us!"

"Stay still, you moron. It's deactivated. It's going to the scrapyard. Even the military ain't insane enough to use that thing again!"

"But what if it reactivates?"

They looked at each other, nodded and ran.

Marietta blinked. The images were appearing before her eyes like a holo-vid from an internally wired device. This is it, she realised. Her emotion chip produced phenomena that she recognised as intense exhilaration coupled with inexplicable terror. Her lost memories. All the functions that she couldn't perform any more. All the missing parts of her fragmented personality. Everything that had been stripped from her.

Everything...

"Lady? The concert's over. Want another drink? Lady?"

Marietta blinked once and her eyes snapped open. Instinctively, she grabbed the person who had come too close to her by his neck and held him at a safer distance.

"Y... you didn't like my music?"

Throwing him to one side, she strode out of the building and looked up. She could see 15 planets, 35 white dwarves, 6 red dwarves, 3 pulsars, 1 sun and 12 orbital defense satellites that she knew the root passwords for. In a split second, she could activate all the systems at once and order them to fire at this planet, completely sterilising all life on Elicoor 3.

Then she saw the signal.  
-----------------------------------

Eruaqs was the first to wake up for once. His face pressed against the glass, eh stared out at the steadily expanding form of Styx, a barren lump of micah that seemed oddly layered, as if some of its strata jutted at unnatural angles, even floating in some places. He was so transfixed by the alien bizarreness that he hadn't even eaten. Chisato stood next to him and took pictures as they slowly descended into the olanet's orbit. There was a small asteroid field here, so Commander Revorse took extra care to maneouvre down to the surface.

"Are you two prepared?" asked the merchant over the intercom. The atmosphee was breathable and the gravity only a fraction too strong but it was still extremely cold with a strong wind. They would need blankets and tents, as well as lots of food supplies, medicine and weapons just in case anything nasty made its home here. Chisato confirmed that she had packed her bags.

"Everything okay with you?" she asked Eruaqs.

"Ssh... pretty music..." answered Eruaqs. Chisato didn't hear a song. One of the first things that hit her about the planet was its eerie silence. Apart from the wind, there was no background music. But Eruaqs was singing along to something - a quiet, very simple tune, as if Tria herself had abandoned the planet before it could be properly created. She had heard of some very underdeveloped planets, but this twisted lump of rock seemed almost unreleased.

"Your hearing must be much more acute than mine, Eruaqs." she said. He just ignored her and carried on singing. She sighed and went off to pack his bags for him. She was now seriously concerned for his sanity. He wasn't even on the surface of the planet and he already spent all day ranting and all night plagued by nightmares.

"Okay, we beam down in T minus 20 minutes." said Commander revorse.

"Did you hear that, Eruaqs?" asked Chisato.

"Falling through the world..." he grabbed the rail in a vice-like grip and started humming 'Tense Atmosphere' under his breath.

After ten minutes, Chisato managed to pry him away from the observation deck with a cookie. They picked up their bags and walked into the short range teleporter. Commander Revorse was already there, laser rifle cocked across her shoulder. They waited to be beamed down to the surface of the dead planet, Styx.

The wind hit Chisato like a knife through her. Her teeth chattered and she wrapped her blanket around her shoulders. Eruaqs ignored her, immediately walking off ahead, humming the inaudible music to himself and jumping over small cracks in the ground. Chisato looked up at the cyan sun that spilled over the bone-white rocks like a pool of spilled ink. It wasn't just the cold that made her shiver. Even though they could teleport away at any time, she felt trapped, utterly alone. And now she was beginning to hear voices in the wind, beastly howling and agonised shrieking. Ghostly shapes poured out of the cracks. Even the cracks didn't look natural. They could have been carved in the shapes of eldritch runes by a mad, extinct race for all she knew. No, she chided herself, don't tell yourself scary stories. Don't let your imagination run away with you. Not here. Its just the light, the stillness and the silence playing tricks on your mind. But then who was Eruaqs having a long conversation with? It sounded like a job interview.

"I'm picking up a high energy reading from that direction." Commander Revorse pointed in the direction that Eruaqs was walking. Chisato shrugged and walked after him. Out of all of them, he alone seemed to know where he was going.

They had just camped for the night when they saw it. Chisato and Commander Revorse were huddled around the fire, barely able to keep a flame going in the wind. The dancing flames cast unearthly shadows that threatened to come to life and devour them whole. Neither of them could sleep. This wasn't helping their ever worsening mental state, so Commander Revorse poured them both a stiff drink and played some relaxing msuci on her laptop. The internet signal was weak here, their latency 5000 and climbing. Chisato couldn't get a phone signal at all. As she drank whisky and swore at the phone, she caught sight of Eruaqs wandering off. Eruaqs had been fast asleep. The reporter ran to fetch him again.

As she approached, she saw that his eyes were utterly blank. He pointed to a spot in the distance. Chisato followed his finger and saw a tall, perfectly square shape in a vallet. Intrigued, she walked closer to it. It was pure white and made of some kind of metal unlike any she ahd seen before. It protruded from the ground as though it had always been there. Leaving Eruaqs, she ran back to Commander Revorse and pulled on her arm until the merchant ran after her, swearing.

"Holy shit. That's... that's the Gate of Styx." she gasped. Chisato looked at her questioningly. "Its something every space pilot hears tales of. Apparently, its been there longer than any recorded civilisation. Every race has leegnds of it - even the Moorians. Its said that nobody who steps through it has ever come back."

"Eruaqs, weren't you found outside the Gate of Styx?" asked Chisato. There was no answer. The reporter looked around. Eruaqs wasn't there. Commander Revorse yelled and pointed. The young man was already halfway down the valley and was waslking purposefully towards the Gate. Chisato began running, but Commander Revorse put a hand on her shoulder.

"Let him go." she said, "He's here to recover his memories, isn't he? I think he remembers something important about the Gate."

"But nobody's been in there and come back!"

"I've heard what he yells in his sleep." said Commander Revorse, "Maybe he doesn't want to come back."  
--------------------------


	16. Chapter 16

A sensation not unlike an electric shock filled Eruaqs as he stepped through the rippling portal. Then was in darkness so total that it engulfed his senses, drowning him in nothingness. He felt like he was floating. Up and down... it didn't matter. Space and time... they no longer had any meaning. Did he even have a body? Maybe he was dead. This wasn't so bad... he wouldn't mind an eternity of this...

Then he was gently returned to his feet. He blinked. Shapes were appearing in the blacnk space. Glowing a neon dark purple, they looked like an enormous complex of glass tunnels, alcoves and chambers, some cuboid, some pyramidal or spherical. It reminded him of the plastic tunnels in a hamster cage he had seen on the Battle Fortress Chronicle. He figured this was some kid of artificial environment as well, probably a space station. He appeared to be standing on a floating... platform in the middle of outer space. How was he breathing? Panicking a little, he felt a sudden urge to be inside the space station. Silently, the platform glid through space towards the glass structure. A panel slid open on the side, allowing him in.

Inside the space station, it was dark, cold and empty. Nobody had been here in a long time. Thick layers of dust were forming, cracks appearing in the glass, discarded office machines were breaking down due to disrepair. Walking down the corridor, he soon found a dome-shaped room where a television still showed a flickering picture, an advertisement for Eternal Sphere on continuous play. Piles of leaflets, their once bright colours faded, lay strewn on a broken table. A child sat on a beanbag in the corner of the room, waiting... waiting...

A splitting headache forced Eruaqs to his knees. He let out a scream of agony. A roaring noise thudded against his skull. He felt as though the red light in his head was tearing him apart. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to keep on looking, looking at the face of his past self.

The boy waited, reading the leaflets, watching the television, taking a nap, rehearsing in his mind what he would do and say. After half an hour, the man came out. Luther. Luther from Human Resources...

Finally, Eruaqs could bear it no longer. Clawing at his skull, he screamed over and over.

"You told me to apply! You came to me in a dream! I remember everythin' about the dream! Then... you rejected me! You even refused to tell me why! People at least get told! They always get told why! At least tell me WHY!"

He snapped open his eyes, breathing heavily, sweat streaming down his face. Through the blackness, he could see the charred mass of molten glass and metal where the corridor now ended abruptly. A single leaflet lay on the floor. He knelt down and peered at it.

ETERNAL SPHERE IS NOW HIRING.

"Why, Tria?" he whispered again.

You'll never stop asking, will you?

Eruaqs looked around but could not locate the source of the mechanical female voice. He shook his head.

"Nevah. Fo' as long as I live."

It's not because you're a bad person. I have full faith that you could do the job. There's a reason why I can't tell you. To know why would only hurt you and its nothing you can change. Do you still want to know?

He nodded, his eyes burning with grim determination.

"Okay. its because..."  
-----------------------------

Chisato screamed as a large human figure shot through the portal right on top at her and bowled her to the ground. It was Eruaqs. He righted himself, blinked and brushed himself down.

"Did you find what you were looking for."

"Everything, Chisato, everything!" he gasped. The look in his eyes, though wild, held none of the terrible insanity that gripped him just five minutes ago.

"Chisato, I'm from Styx! I'm native to the planet Styx!" he yelled, the reporter hastily scribbling down everything he said.

"But Styx is abandoned!"

"Only on the outside! There's more in the gates! The gates lead to all different places and times! Coming to Styx doesn't send the natives crazy, Chisato... only leaving! Inside the gates, everything's so much bigger than outside, I got claustrophobia inside your tiny galaxy when I was forced to come here!"

"What forced you to come here, Eruaqs?"

"A job interview." he bowed his head, looking like he had been caught shoplifting, "Wh... when I didn't get the job, it pushed me over the edge. I was so crazy I couldn't even get it together enough to come back! But now I'm home... I'm home... thank you, Chisato..."

He hugged her tightly. She blushed and tried to wriggle free. Then his face went serious again and he whispered something in her ear again.

"Chisato... there's somethin' you really need ta know..." he said, "The reason I didn't get that job, was..."

"HOLY SHIT, LOOK AT THE SKY!" screamed Commander Revorse. Chisato looked up and began screaming as well.

The sun was blotted out by a swarm of XINE ten times the size of the one that attacked the Chronicle. Thousands upon thousands of razor sharp wings and beaks, a rain of feathers and energy bolts, a digital chaos of grating warbles. A few group of a hundred of so were already diving towards the planet in arrow formation.

"It's the end of the world." said Commander Revorse. Then she turned to Chisato and began yelling orders again, "The Gate! Run for the Gate! FOR TRIA'S SAKE, STOP TAKING PICTURES OF THEM!"

Chisato jumped and ran after the retreating form of Commander Revorse. Then she stopped.

"Eruaqs, where are you going?" she asked.

"Jus' go on without me." he mumbled. Then he raised his hands and walked towards the XINE.

"Eruaqs, are you surrendering? I don't think they observe the Geneva Convention..." before she could run after him, Commander Revorse grabbed her by the collar and dragged her towards the portal. Chisato punched her in the face.

"ERUAQS!" she screamed.

Before her eyes, she saw every single XINE swoop down and fall upon the man like a storm cloud. There was a deafening chorus of distorted bird cries, a whirlwind of blue feathers, then...

An explosion of blinding damson light threw her to the ground. The XINE screamed in unison. The ground shook and new cracks began forming. Dust, rock and ash spurted from the cracks, choking her. Then, with a flutter of wings, the XINE retreated back into the skies, leaving only...

----------------------------------

Chisato and Commander Revorse just stood and stared in horrified fascination at the thing that Eruaqs had become. Two pairs of purple wings spread from his back. Long claws grew out of his fingers and toes. His wild hair was thrown back, revealing his eyes. Those eyes were wrong. They glowed dull crimson in a bottomless, raging inferno. He turned to the two, his gaze unrecognising, and spoke in a voice not his own, a booming, grating voice.

"THIS IS A HOSTILE TAKEOVER!" he said.

Chisato walked forwards with her dictaphone, trying to hide the fear in her eyes.

"Who are you?" she whispered, "And what have you done with Eruaqs?"

"WE ARE THE XINE OVERMIND." he said.

"The XINE... you're a hive mind? You're intelligent?" gasped Commander Revorse.

"Now listen here! You can't just take over Eruaqs' mind like that! Give him back!" demanded Chisato, "I'm happy to enter negotiations with you, but not in Eruaqs' body. He's already troubled and you'll destroy his mind if you abuse it like that!"

"THIS IS THE ONLY MIND THAT WORKS. THE OTHER MINDS ARE NOT COMPATIBLE."

"What do you mean... not compatible?"

Suddenly, the thing turned around and looked up at the sky. The XINE were screeching and moving around, attacking, some dropping from the sky. Laser fire - very heavy laser fire - rained down upon them relentlessly. There were antimatter cannon rays, clusters of neutron bombs, even a gauss cannon beam. Ships and battle fortresses were appearing on the horizon, a whole fleet of them.

"Commander Revorse, what in Tria's name is going on?" demanded Chisato. The merchant was typing on her laptop manically.

"I've just had a broadcast from the Chronicle." she said, her face white, "Stop press news. Every automated defense system in the galaxy is converging upon Styx, even the ones in orbit around other planets. They've chosen their battleground, Chisato."

"Holy shit..."

"Just get your ass through the gate, Chisato, NOW. We're all going to die."

"Commander Revorse... look up..." Chisato began shaking as she pointed to the sky. A ship was moving close to the planet's surface and a single humanoid figure beamed down from it. Eruaqs sped towards it, half-flying.

"Isn't that..."

"DIRECTOR!" yelled Chisato, running after Eruaqs towards Marietta. She floated slightly off the ground, her hair flowing upwards, both laser pistols drawn. Her face was as expressionless as ever as she fixed her gaze on Eruaqs, "Director! What are you doing here? Who's watching the control room?"

"I'm not your Director any more." she replied calmly. She aimed both her pistols and fired at Eruaqs. She had gotten in twenty shots before Chisato could even react. Eruaqs dodged most of them, moving lightning-fast and retorting with a cluster of energy bolts. None of them hit, so he dove in, shock waves erupting from his powerful wing beats. Marietta raised her hand and a meta-shield appeared from nowhere, absorbing the waves. A meta-blade appeared in her other hand and she slashed at him with it, drawing a thin cut across Eruaqs' cheek. Unfazed, he retreated and started firing again. She returned fire. All this happened in a matter of half-seconds. Chisato had neevr seen combat so fast or so deadly. She could do little but sit on a rock and record the battle. Eruaqs... Director... what was happening? Was she hallucinating it all? Had Styx finally claimed her sanity?

After a few minutes, Eruaqs began to tire. The android did not. While Eruaqs' movements slowed down, Marietta pressed her advantage, slashing furiously, easily deflecting the waves with her meta-shield. Her relentless assault had left Eruaqs with slashes across hias face and chest, one of his wings almost sheared through, feathers dropping like bloody petals. He grimaced, swiping with his claws, a maelstrom of dark energy swirling around him. He's going to die, thought Chisato. The Director's going to kill him.

Them suddenly, he threw her off him and flew far back. He then fell to his knees and began clutching his head. He yelled nonsensical words to himself in both his distorted XINE voice and his own, as though he were having an argument with himself. His wings were dropping off in heaps of bloody feathers, his claws retracting. Marietta gave him a curious look, confused by his retreat, but she soon recovered. She jumped over to Eruaqs, raised her sword above her head and...

Chisato jumped back. She ahd been following the action from behind a rock, fully aware that only her protected status as a reporter was keeping her alive, when a man just appeared between the two combatants. Weaponless, he just stood and stared at Marietta, a sad frown upon his face.

"Mr. Deguares, you have three seconds to step aside before I terminate your existence." said Marietta.

"I won't let you let you kill a helpless, injured man!"

"That, Mr. Deguares, is the XINE hive overmind."

"It looks like a wounded unarmed man to me."

"The perfect host body." she said, looking down at the terrified-looking man, "Where better to hide while directign an army through the Tria galaxy than inside the gate of Styx?"

"Eruaqs, is that true?" asked Chisato.

"Mrs. Madison, I want to thank the Chronicle for locating and repairing me when my own creators would have had me destroyed for my faults." said Marietta, "But now I have regained my memory, my full functionality... and my mission. That mission is almost complete. There is no need for interference."

"So..." Lionel tapped his feet, "Let me get this straight. You're going to kill a wounded, unarmed man in front of all the reporters."

"I thought I told you to... what do you mean, ALL the reporters?"

Lionel pointed up. Chisato followed his hand. From out of nowhere materialised around fifty ships bearing the Nede Chronicle standard.  
------------------------------------------------


	17. Chapter 17

"Guys!" Chisato screamed over her phone. Jan Orvue's voice answered.

"There was a WAR and you didn't invite us all? You're incorrigable! Fancy hogging a story like this for yourself!"

"How did you get here?"

Another voice answered - the voice of a small child.

"Like this!"

As suddenly as it had begun, the Nede Chronicle theme - 'Kamikaze' - faded out again. A couple of missile systems that had begun firing at them forgot that they existed and went back to the XINE.

"Ambient music editing?" gasped Commander Revorse.

"I could still annihilate you all!" said Marietta, "The only weapon you have is the Game Over tune and you wouldn't dare use that! It would destroy your own forces as well!"

"Marietta..." Lionel bowed his head, "I did this to you, didn't I? That song I sung. This only happened because of the song. I'm so sorry... if I had known, I would never have done what you said."

"I would have shot you if you didn't do what I said." she replied calmly, pointing her gun at him.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screamed Eruaqs, a shriek that was purely human. All at once, every XINE fell silent. Chisato looked up again. The phone buzzed with activity. Every XINE had just stopped moving, not even resisting as the defense systems tore into them. Eruaqs stood up, clenched his fists and gazed up at them, his expression a frozen flame.

"And stay the hell out of my head!" he roared, shaking his hair back into his eyes, "I ain't doin' this no more! Not 'til ya feed me! ya ain't fed me fer ages! WHERE'S MY FOOD? WHERE IS IT? I'M 'UNGRY!"

"Eruaqs!" yeleld Chisato.

"Here." Lionel rifled through his pockets, took out a chocolate bar and threw it to Eruaqs, who caught it and devoured it before wiping his mouth on his sleeve, "NO! You don't get away, you bastards! See how you like it! Not being fed! I'm gonna make it so you never not feed people again!"

"What exactly is happening?" demanded Marietta.

"This..." said Eruaqs, grinning wolfishly, "Is an 'ostile takeovah."

He pointed to the XINE, who were already suffering heavy losses, and waved his arm. They retreated as one, soaring off the planet and heading out of the galaxy, ignoring the missile systems that shot at them as they went past. Unable to contain herself, Chisato took out a microphone and held it out to Eruaqs.  
--------------------------

"I think you owe us a complete explanation." she said.

"Well, ya see..." he began, staring pointedly at Lionel until he relented and gave him another chocolate bar, "Thing about Styx people is... our minds are kinda fractured. We're born with wossname... multiple personalities. That's why we don't go crazy on Styx. Crazy to you guys is natural to us. The XINE liked that. Ya see, they don't udnerstand people with one mind. Their hive mind, its got millions of little minds in it. So, the Overmind, she comes to me, says she wants ta negoterate."

"But she took your mind over?"

He nodded, "I kinda knew they would. But they promised me lotsa food, and I was 'ungry."

"I thought you said you weren't crazy before you left the world." sighed Commander Revorse.

"Thing is, the XINE didn't tell me ta do nothin', so I forgot they was there. Forgot it all, 'til..."

"Until what?"

He suddenly burst into tears, throwing his arms around Lionel.

"Tria don't want me no more! Says I'm a traitor! Tria says... I've turned into little more than a XINE myself! I th... thought that maybe if I wossname... co-operated, the XINE would take me away to their world. Even if I'm just a prisoner, even if they kill me... its better than bein' in a galaxy with a goddess that don't want you no more."

Before anyone could stop her, Commander Revorse pushed Lionel out of the way and slapped him hard across the cheek.

"You ARE a traitor!" she snapped, "A traitor and a coward and a glutton and... how the hell did you break free of the XINE overmind? I mean, you didn't just break free... you took control of it! That's not possible for such a weak mind!"

"Ya see..." began Eruaqs, "Ya let somethin' in so deep, its lettin' you in as well. It couldn't get out no more. Then I was so hungry, hungry an' angry... by the time it realised what I was doin', it was too late fer it."

"The war's over, Marietta." Lionel walked over to her and looked into her eyes. She looked straight through him.

"Mr. Deguares." she said, "I believe your diagnosis to be correct. Something indeed went wrong with the memory transfer. This was caused by an imperfect playback of the audio file."

"A what?"

"She says your singing's crap." translated Commander Revorse.

"I wish to try again." she continued, "And again. As many times as it takes to perfect the procedure. I want all my memories back."

"See? She likes my singing after all."

"You..." said Eruaqs, pointing to him, "Thanks. Ya saved me life."

"That's nothing. I do things like that all the time back in Airyglyph." he blushed and scratched the back of his head, "I'd better be going home. Airyglyph will descend into barbaric anarchy without me. It always does."

"Yes, let's go." agreed Commander Revorse, "I've had enough of this planet."

"If you're going back to the Chronicle, you should take me with you." said Marietta, "We may have another battle on our hands. We published your entire article, Commander Revorse. Earth will be after our blood."

"The Chronicle is in danger? And you ran off to Styx?" complained Chisato, "You're the real traitor, Marietta!"

"Don't worry. I evacuated everyone before I published the article. I... think they're all in those ships above us."

"I got you into the mess, I'll help you defend yourselves." decided Commander Revorse, "The war's over. The truth is out. This is a new dawn for the galaxy. Fargett will rise again."

"What about you, Eruaqs? What are you doing?" asked Chisato.

"I'm, sorry, but..." Eruaqs hung his head, "I'm stayin'."

"I understand. This is your home." said Chisato.

"I dunno what'll happen when I go through that gate." said Eruaqs, "I may never see ya again. So, this is goodbye."

"I'll write an article about you." promised Chisato, "It'll go on the front page."

"One day I'm going to explore the Gate of Styx for myself." added Commander Revorse, "I'll be the most famous space pilot in the galaxy, as well as President of New Fargett."

"If you're hungry again, come and find me." said Lionel.

They all waved goodbye to Eruaqs as he stepped through the gate and disappeared. Then they headed back to the Revorse. The kitten mewed and chased after them. 'Sweet Time' played in the background.


End file.
